Mercedes F1 faced W15 inconsistency in Austin, with Toto Wolff acknowledging a challenging and disappointing weekend for the team.
Toto Wolff could only draw a negative assessment from the United States Grand Prix. Mercedes F1 experienced a positive Sprint qualifying, but a difficult Sprint race followed by a disappointing qualifying session, with an elimination in Q1 and an off-track incident.
After George Russell started from the pit lane and Lewis Hamilton qualified 17th on the grid, the latter went off-track on the second lap, while his teammate managed to salvage eight points with a sixth-place finish.
“This weekend has been overall difficult here in Austin. We can see the car has pace, as we showed on Friday and with George during the race, but we still have to contend with its inconsistency,” Wolff said.
“This is not unique to us. Various teams have experienced highs and lows throughout the season, but it’s something we will work hard on and improve over the last five races of the season.”
“The positive takeaway from today is that George was fast throughout the race and made a solid recovery from his pit lane start. The team in the garage worked hard the previous night to get the car ready for the race, with a significant workload to return the car to its specifications.”
“George had a strong race and was particularly quick on the hard compound. This allowed us to extend his first stint and ultimately secure sixth place in the final laps.”
“Unfortunately, it was a disappointing day for Lewis. He wasn’t pushing hard at all, but a gust of wind, combined with the dirty air from the car ahead, caused him to lose control,” said Toto Wolff.
“We need to investigate this and what happened to George on Saturday to understand why the car reacted this way. Lewis Hamilton is not a driver who loses the car like that on the second lap of a race, so there’s something we need to understand.”
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, admitted the team’s objectives were modest for Sunday: “Given we had one car starting from the back and the other from the pit lane, we had realistic expectations of what could be achieved.”
“Lewis got off to a good start and quickly found himself in 12th place. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as he lost the rear at Turn 19. We are still investigating what caused it, but either way, his race was over.”
“George was steadily making his way through the field in his first stint, but it wasn’t until midway through the race that he got some clean air to gauge the pace. It’s encouraging to see the car managed its tyres well, allowing us to extend the stint.”
“Sixth place was the best result he could have achieved, and he drove a good race to get there. As a team, we didn’t perform up to standard this weekend, and we are under no illusions that we need to do better.”
“The upgrade package has shown promising results, but we didn’t have a single clean session and leave without knowing what we could have achieved had we started higher with the car in its latest specification. We’ll aim to answer that question next weekend in Mexico.”
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Wolff criticises W15’s instability after tough Austin weekend Wolff criticises W15’s instability after tough Austin weekend
