Mercedes upgrade has taken car from awful to not good, says Wolff
Toto Wolff says he is cautiously optimistic Mercedes have taken a step forward with their new upgrade package, joking in the wake of Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix that the drivers described the car as only “not good”, as opposed to “awful” last year.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and George Russell fifth, moving the team to within a point of Aston Martin in second place in the constructors’ championship. Their final positions were helped by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashing in qualifying, and arguably Ferrari’s strategy calls as well. But it could have been even better. Russell was third when he made a mistake under-braking in the wet and ran off the track.
Wolff said Monaco had never particularly suited Mercedes – although they did win five times in seven years from 2013 – but that the feedback from his drivers on the new package was encouraging. “We have never been good here,” said the Austrian. “The car was ‘awful’ last year and this time around the drivers said the car was ‘not good’, so that is a step forward.
“We will collect more data in Barcelona. I don’t expect us to clear Ferrari and Aston Martin there either. Last year the package was terrible at the beginning of the year and we won a race in Interlagos, so we will get there.”
Hamilton said he was looking forward to putting the car through its paces at a higher speed circuit in Barcelona this weekend.
“It feels like the car has progressed,” he said. “Next week we’ll get a much better feel for it as we can really push through the medium and high-speed corners. Overall it has been positive.”
Russell was angry with himself for giving away third spot. “It’s bitterly disappointing when you do everything right and then one tiny mistake costs everything,” he said.*