Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has touted that it has a “good step” coming with upgrades to its car in Miami amid an arduous Chinese Grand Prix for the team.
The German marque’s challenging beginning to the 2024 season continued upon F1’s return to Shanghai, as George Russell finished sixth with Lewis Hamilton ninth.
Russell could not mount a serious attack on Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari despite having newer rubber, while Hamilton failed to pressurise Oscar Piastri’s wounded McLaren.
Wolff has admitted Mercedes’ pace was disappointing relative to its rivals and has revealed it will have developments arriving on the W15 at the next round in Miami.
“I think considering where we put the cars all together, drivers and team was not a good position for today,” Wolff said. “Yeah, not good enough overall.
“P6 I think and P10 [sic], but it’s lacking pace. So we gotta dig deep. We have something coming for Miami that looks like a good step. Let’s see where that brings us out.”
Pressed on how much those new parts would deliver in lap time terms, Wolff teased: “Let’s see, hopefully a bit.”
The Chinese GP weekend had begun on an encouraging note for Mercedes as Hamilton capitalised on circumstances to convert second place on the grid in the Sprint.
However, the Briton endured a shock Q1 elimination as he rued a mistake at Turn 14 and a drastic set-up experiment, which Wolff has conceded was a step too extreme.
Asked whether Mercedes now had a grasp on a decent base, Wolff retorted “No, no, it’s not an OK car. I think we can see what the mistakes were that we did on the car.
“I think we wanted to go a bit more aggressive to see, is it something that is so different that we need to do on the car?
“And, yeah, you can see Lewis today who took it on him also [to do the experiment]. That was maybe a step too far.”
Prior to the intervention of the Safety Car bringing him back into the mix and enabling him to complete a string of late moves, Hamilton had complained about car balance.
“Also the race car was not fast,” Wolff added. “You could hear him saying the car doesn’t turn. This is what we’ve been seeing on the data. It just wasn’t the right thing to do.”
Hamilton proclaimed that he was “grateful to get to the points” and concurred with Wolff’s comments that he is hopeful that updates will deliver a marked improvement.
“I think we have some step forward coming in the next race,” he said. “And so until then, we’ll be back in the factory next week and just try and position the car better for Miami.”
