Toto Wolff pinpoints “atrocious” Japanese GP issue that derailed Mercedes
Toto Wolff explains what he thinks ruined Mercedes' race at the F1 Ja♛panese Grand Prix.
Toto Wolff believes Mercedes could have been on for a podium finish without “an atrocious first stint” at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Mercedes opted for a bold tyre strategy following an early red flag by switching 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell onto the hard compound in an attempted one-stop.
But the team were ultimately forced to convert to a conventional two-stop and🌃 Russell could only finish seventh, two places ahead of Hamilton in ninth.
"We ended up where we started and it was ♕just very difficult," Mercedes team principal Wolff told Sky𓂃 F1.
"We had a second and third stint that was super quick and we would've been racing for a podium but an atroc๊ious first stint.
"We need to find ⛦out what it wasꦜ, was it too hot, were we over-managing?
"I think it was thꩵe right th🍃ing to do at the beginning because it looked pretty stable in terms of lap times.
"They were not pulling away too much, the direct competitors, but𓆉 then it suddenly dropped like two seconds a lap and two and a half second per lap. In that moment it was clear it wouldn't last.”
Although a frustrated Hamilton had called for Mercedes to “change the strategy” during the race, afterwards he admitted it would have made little differen🔯ce.
"I don't know what the different strategy would've been, whether we stayed on the medium to start, but we still had two really terrible hard tyres to run through," 🐈the seven-time world ✤champion said.
"The hard tyre was pretty bad, as I said, but the medium tyre was better. In hindsight, it looks like we should have had two medium tyres. Bu🅺t in general, the car was pr♛etty bad today.”
Despite another disappointing race, Wolff is taking the 🐲positives from the weekend and insists 🐈Mercedes are going in the right direction.
“It’s better than it looks with the final result,” ꦅhe said. “Also, in qualifying, there is lots that we have 🔜learned. It will get better from here.
"We need to be qui🤡ck on all circuits. There is no excuse on temperature or track layouts. We need to sort it out.
“That🦋’s why I said this is live testing for us. We’ve changed things massively. The car is becoming quicker.”
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