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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes Mercedes lacked pure pace against rivals like Ferrari and McLaren. Speaking to onsite media after the 2024 Australian GP, the Austrian suggested that the car was fundamentally not up to the mark.
In the qualifying in Melbourne, Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh and eleven on the grid respectively. They not only struggled in terms of pace but the former crashed out on the last lap while the latter retired after eight laps due to a failure.
A double retirement was a painful result for the team at the start of the season. However, the more worrisome problem for them is that in terms of pace, the W15 is far off from the Red Bull and Ferrari, and seemingly not good enough to compete with Mercedes customer teams such as McLaren.
Mercedes’ multiple champion has described the start as the worst start to a season in his career. Both drivers have claimed their performance has been better in slow speed corners but slow in the medium and high speed sections.
Wolff, on his part, feels that the car might have deep-seated problems. Asked if the Mercedes W15 was fundamentally good, Wolff said:
“No. I had that feeling until last weekend that there is a good car. And... i should word it differently. I haven't lost that feeling, that there is... a good car because there are sessions throughout the weekend and also the last two ones where we are absolutely right up there, in terms of performance and then we lose it again. P3 we were within tenths of everybody else, in quali, eighth or seventh and then race pace was never there this weekend. You could see McLaren and Ferrari they were going seven eight tenths quicker on Friday already and we had no answer to that.”
Asked if there were any weak spots that needed to be fixed with the car, Wolff said:
“You know, the performance of the car is made by some fundamentals and then some variables and I think in the variables is, you know, all of the aerodynamics effect on the car, the mechanical adjustments that we make. Fundamentally the basic performance is made in the factory and then you have a certain amount of tools that you can dial on track to make it better or worse. Yeah, so that's the answer to the question.”
Mercedes boss gives worrisome feedback about the W15
Mercedes Executive Director Toto Wolff further suggested that they have been unable to correlate the wind tunnel and track performance. Speaking to onsite media, the Austrian claimed the performance of their car was confusing and complicated to understand. He feels that the Albert Park circuit worked well for them in the past and that most of the problems from last year have gone.
Asked how the problem on their car can be diagnosed, the Mercedes boss said:
“When I look at the positives, and that is, I think we took many potential root causes out of the equation. We weren't sure about our suspension. We weren't sure about the stiffness of our gearbox carrier. We had a vibrating steering rack, and all of those things have disappeared, but fundamentally, whatever we see in the tunnel doesn't correlate with what's happening on the track.
“I don't think we're missing something it is just a complication of what's happening with the car that we can't see. It's like an on /off switch and then then you see the progress that McLaren and Ferrari have made, and this is the difference between last year and this year. This was a pretty good weekend for us last year. I just saw that clip before, because I forgot about past races. We were leading at the beginning, one and two. So, you know, we got a really dig deep because it is brutally painful.”
Down to fourth place in the championship, Mercedes have currently scored 26 points in three races. Customer team McLaren have outscored them by 29 points and Aston Martin trail them by one point.
Despite the expectation of having a better car in 2024, the Silver Arrows squad now have a host of problems to deal with. Battling Red Bull is a far-fetched task at the moment as their current car performance is only quick enough for them to finish in the top 10.
