Toto Wolff addresses Mercedes’ Achilles' heel as the Austrian vows to make pitstop overhauls after slow Austin changes

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff is resolved to work on the team's Achilles' heel as two slow stops cost Lewis Hamilton a possible victory prior to his disqualification from the United States GP.

In what was the Mercedes W14's most competitive outing, Hamilton was classified 2.2 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, who was nursing his RB19 to the finish. The deficit could have been overturned if the Silver Arrows squad had serviced Hamilton's car quicker.

Lewis Hamilton's two pit stops were timed at 3.6 and 3.4 seconds, which is almost a second slower than Red Bull's two fastest stops recorded at 2.4 and 2.5 seconds. Toto Wolff acknowledged the loss in the pitlane and vowed to improve their pitstops.

"Our mindset in the last 12 years, we don't need to be world champions in pitstops," he said to motorsport.com. "We need to avoid very slow pitstops. And it's coming to a situation now where we realize that it has got so competitive, and we just need to ramp up our game up there."

For the last decade, Mercedes has never felt the need for quicker pitstops as they had a huge pace advantage. However, the team no longer boasts such superiority and feels the need to improve their stops.

Toto Wolff also suggested the slower pitstops were due to the equipment and not the members of the pit crew.

"That's in terms of equipment and science around it, and the way we are set up, to avoid 3 or 3.5 seconds pitstops because all of that played a part."

Lewis Hamilton was also wary of the slow pit stop as he said in the post-race interview:

"...And I think in one of the pitstops, I might have been a bit long, which then made it harder for the guys and then the stop wasn't that great overall."

McLaren and Ferrari have also ramped up their pit stops in recent times with the former now holding the record for the fastest stop.

The Mercedes boss is resolved to improve their trackside operations to avoid such close calls in the future.

Toto Wolff comments on Lewis Hamilton's disqualification

Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his second-place finish at COTA as his Mercedes W14 had excessive wear on the plank after the race.

Toto Wolff reasoned the technical infringement was due to a wrong set but accepted that the team should have done better.

"Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice - and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package," The Austrian was quoted by RacingNews365.com

"In the end, all of that doesn't matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there's no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend."

Lewis Hamilton was disappointed with the disqualification but was happy with the progress made from the upgrades.