"I'd rather have a fast car and a Qualifying like this than not having the pace" - Mercedes boss says he's surprised by performance gains despite both drivers crashing out in 2022 F1 Austrian GP qualifying

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was surprised by their performance at the Red Bull Ring circuit in Spielberg, ahead of the 2022 Austrian GP.

Despite both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell crashing out of the qualifying session, the Austrian was pleased with the performance gains.

Commenting on the performance of his drivers in qualifying, Wolff said:

“These two should never beat themselves up because of this situation - crashing out. We've given them a car that wasn't on par for 10 races in a row and now we're starting to come to terms and drive in front, it can happen that you just lose the car.

"I'd rather have a fast car and a Qualifying like this than not having the pace to be in the top four.”

Both Mercedes drivers brought out the red flags as they spun out of the final session of qualifying. However, Wolff believes their performance gains are the takeaway from where they were fighting for pole position and had the speed to match the front-runners.

The Austrian was surprised their car performed on a circuit that has historically been a challenge for the Brackley squad.

Expressing his views on their pace and performance, Wolff said:

“Yeah we're surprised. Spielberg was always a race where we were struggling, even in the best of our days it wasn't very good, so we were not expecting another step in performance.

"But, slowly things are coming together. Interestingly, not like you would think in Formula 1 that there's one silver bullet when you bolt on a wing and suddenly it goes, but it's tiny little steps and fantastic work from the engineers. I'm happy to see that.”

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Mercedes hope to capitalise on the sprint and race to maximise their points

The Mercedes chief believes the sprint race should give them plenty of opportunities to capitalize on points along with the race. Red Bull's Sergio Perez has been demoted to 13th after being penalized for violating track limits. Wolff feels Hamilton and Russell could be promoted further up the grid for the sprint race.

Looking forward to the sprint race in Austria, Wolff said:

“For such a long time, we've not be in the game and George is maybe going to start fourth, if Sergio is to go back and with Lewis, we shall see. There's a Sprint race and race on Sunday... if we have good days we could be making quite some steps forwards.”

After Perez’ penalty Russell has been promoted to second row in fourth place while Hamilton is promoted to ninth place on the grid.

As seen in Silverstone, the conventional circuits do offer opportunities for overtaking. The sprint race in Austria could be a significant opportunity for Mercedes to turn the tables.