Wolff reveals big Mercedes ‘mystery’ that has stumped team and  decide  targets for Lewis Hamilton and Russell as Mercedes left worried

Toto Wolff has described his confusion at Mercedes’ inconsistent pace at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Mercedes suffered a nightmare weekend in Brazil in the previous race where they barely scraped into the points having gone backwards through the grid during the race.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished only seventh and eighth respectively in Las Vegas yet their race pace was a notable step up, with the respective drivers having fallen victim to a puncture and a time penalty.

Cold temperatures play havoc with Mercedes
Wolff seems to back that up. Amid a weekend of arguments between the Mercedes team principal and journalists about the overall event in Vegas, he has now revealed his thoughts on the Silver Arrows’ pace.

“It remains a mystery,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“Having the tyres in the right window and you can see the difference. We already saw it in FP3, very difficult to understand.”

During a disappointing qualifying for Hamilton, he revealed over the team radio how he didn’t think his car was capable of more than the 11th place he earned (which was later turned into tenth due to Carlos Sainz’s penalty.)

Wolff has clarified those comments, with the seven-time world champion’s team-mate clearly proving more was possible.

“Because he didn’t have any more grip,” Wolff continued.

“I think we’re talking really about four or five degrees in temperature difference between grip and no grip and you can see there are some teams, you know the McLaren’s they play in the front and they’re out in Q1 and on the other side, Ferrari is putting in stunning laps, both of them half a second ahead of everybody else.”

Discussing his hopes for the final race of what has been a testing 2023 campaign, Wolff didn’t hold back in his targets. He told Sky Sports F1: “We have seen pace-ish today. I think we can hopefully recover and score solid podiums.”

The Mercedes boss was also feeling positive about the inaugural Las Vegas GP, stating: “I wouldn’t change a lot. I would change qualifying maybe from midnight to 10pm, like the race start. So you can still have the roads open long at Vegas and have dinner for the fans. Other than that, it was a perfect event.”

“A really challenging race,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I started on the hard tyre which was tricky at the beginning. I got a big hit from someone behind, I think it was Carlos and tried to not hit the cars that had spun around. I fell back five or six places.

“Then after that just making my way back. I was feeling great, the tyres were feeling good, the pace was strong. I went up the inside of Piastri, I don’t really know exactly what happened, I obviously got the hit from behind. I think it was a racing incident.”