WOLFF BEATING HIMSELF UP OVER LACK OF PACE FROM MERCEDES
Team boss wants to bop himself on the nose after lacklustre F1 outing
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff has backed his Mercedes team to turn its poor early-season form around after a nadir in Melbourne when neither Lewis Hamilton or George Russell made it to the end.
Russell was on course for seventh place before he crashed out dramatically with two laps to go. Hamilton was forced to park up after 15 laps with a dead motor. The pair had qualified in seventh and 11th place respectively, with Russell’s Q3 time some 0.8 seconds adrift of the polesitting Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Both Merc racers had chased set-up on the W15 chassis throughout practice and Hamilton admitted it had been his “worst start to the season ever”.
Carlos Sainz won the race for Ferrari, leading home a 1-2 for the Scuderia. Ferrari is second in the constructors’ standings behind Red Bull with
Mercedes languishing in fourth. Merc is already 71 points from the summit after just three rounds in 2024.
Wolff said: “There were times in the race where we massively lacked pace. And then there were times at the end when you compare like for like and we are doing OK [although it is] still not where we want to be.
“Clearly we started the season in the belief that this car is better than it was last year. Then you look at last year and look at these guys [Ferrari] – Charles Leclerc crashed out and Carlos Sainz was fourth and got relegated out of the top 10 because of a penalty. Now they are 40s ahead of us.
“So, obviously, on one side I want to punch myself on the nose. But on the other side, it is a testimony of that when you get things right, you can turn it around pretty quickly and you have just got to continue to believe.”