Abir Evelyn CamdenIn a candid admission, Toto Wolff acknowledges Mercedes’ ongoing struggles during the Australian GP qualifiers, emphasizing the team’s resolve.
Mercedes F1 Team Principal Toto Wolff has conceded there are “no excuses” for the team’s disappointing performance during the Australian Grand Prix qualifiers.
For the third consecutive weekend, George Russell emerged as the fastest Mercedes driver in qualifying, yet he only managed to secure seventh place, falling over seven-tenths of a second behind Max Verstappen and his Red Bull.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was knocked out in Q2, landing in a modest 11th place, marking his worst qualifying performance in Melbourne since 2010.
Despite witnessing promising performance improvements in the final free practice session on Saturday morning, with Hamilton closing within a tenth of the top time, the team’s competitiveness significantly waned during qualifying.
“It’s especially frustrating because we were within a tenth in FP3,” Wolff stated.
“The conditions were slightly different, but that’s no excuse. We’re dealing with a challenging car, and it’s easy to narrowly miss or hit the performance window.”
“Although it’s tiresome to keep saying it, we just have to keep working on it.”
“It’s not for lack of trying, but here we are, and it’s simply not good enough.”
While Wolff acknowledges that catching up to Red Bull in the short term is an “illusion,” he still believes the team can turn things around with its W15.
“Thinking we can close the gap to Red Bull shortly is an illusion, but I still have to believe there’s more to come from this car.”
“This morning, the car wasn’t bad, but it’s incredibly tough to consistently hit the right performance window. We just have to keep working at it, that’s all.”
Mercedes F1 Faces No Excuses After Qualifying Blow. Mercedes F1 Faces No Excuses After Qualifying Blow
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