Mercedes F1 Struggles: Wolff Eyes Miami Upgrades

Toto Wolff identifies critical flaws in the W15 as Mercedes F1 gears up for vital upgrades in Miami.

Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes F1, is highly dissatisfied with the performance level of the W15.

Following the Chinese Grand Prix, it is clear that the car driven by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell is not competitive in either single-lap speed or race pace.

“I think given where we positioned the cars, the drivers, and the team, it wasn’t easy to hope for a good position today. It’s simply not good enough overall.”

“We are lacking pace at every level. We need to dig deep. We have something coming for Miami that seems to be a promising step in terms of developments. Let’s see where it takes us.”

“But this is not a good car. We can see what the errors are on the W15. We wanted to be a bit more aggressive to see if it was something so different that we needed to do with this car, and you can see that Lewis took a risk for the race with his settings. It might have been a step too far.”

Pressed to elaborate on what Lewis Hamilton was experimenting with on his car, Wolff adds:

“I’m not going to tell you. But it didn’t work, his car was not fast in race pace. You hear him say that the car doesn’t turn and that’s what we can see in the data. It wasn’t the right thing to do.”

And what about the upgrade in Miami?

“We’ll see. I hope for a small step forward towards McLaren and Ferrari. But McLaren also promises significant upgrades. For Ferrari, it should be at Imola.”