Mercedes struggled during the weekend in Melbourne, leading Toto Wolff to contemplate his future after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell failed to complete the race.
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff have differing views on the performance of the Mercedes W15 car.
According to Ted Kravitz, there seems to be a lack of communication between the Silver Arrows driver and his boss during the Australian Grand Prix. The veteran pit lane reporter expressed his thoughts on Mercedes’ troubles during his show Ted’s Notebook on Sky Sports F1.
He stated that Toto Wolff remains optimistic about the car’s potential, but Lewis Hamilton does not share the same belief.
Hamilton feels that the car is plagued by similar handling issues in the rear, just like the previous year’s car and the one before that.
It is evident that the current car is still not performing as expected.” Mercedes had a disappointing weekend in Melbourne. The only highlight was George Russell qualifying in seventh place, but even that was overshadowed by Hamilton’s 11th place finish.
Not that any of it mattered because neither one of them finished Sunday’s race. Hamilton’s day was over after just 17 laps when his engine gave up, while Russell crashed on the penultimate lap while trying to overtake Fernando Alonso.
Even if they had reached the end, they were only competing for minor points. Mercedes were optimistic at the start of the season that they could close the gap to Red Bull – instead, they are as far away from the leaders as ever while Ferrari and McLaren have also overtaken them in the pecking order.
Kravitz said that a conversation he had with Wolff gives him the impression that the Mercedes chief and Hamilton are not on the same page regarding what they can achieve this year with this car.
He stated that when he recently spoke to Toto, Toto mentioned that he still believes they can correct the situation.
However, Lewis seems to have already given up on winning the championship this year.
Lewis himself acknowledged that he is currently 43 points behind Max Verstappen after three races, with only eight points compared to Max’s 51. This may not be the ideal conclusion to his time with Mercedes before he moves to Ferrari.
Hamilton was lucky that his failure to finish the race did not cause him to fall further behind Verstappen, who also did not complete the race as the championship leader.
A few minutes into the Grand Prix, Verstappen’s brakes caught fire and the flames caused the rear-right corner of his Red Bull car to melt.
Mercedes finds themselves stuck in fourth place in the constructors’ championship, trailing Red Bull by 71 points and only one point ahead of Aston Martin. Following the race, Wolff acknowledged to the media that it is reasonable to question his suitability as the team’s leader.