F1 News

Wolff explains Hamilton's back pain due to porpoising: 'We generate almost 6G'

Wolff explains Hamilton's back pain due to porpoising: 'We generate almost 6G'

12-06-2022 15:26
18

GPblog.com

Toto Wolff knows there is work to be done. George Russell managed to finish on the podium for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton on P4, but the team can benefit from Ferrari's dropouts. Mainly the porpoising problem needs to be solved quickly, the team boss believes.

"Sometimes you think they are all going to end up in the wall, but then they drive more carefully. It was an almost incident-free week, apart from obviously, tragically with the Ferrari’s," Wolff said to Viaplay's camera.

Despite the big gap towards Red Bull and Ferrari, the Mercedes team boss is not giving up yet. Wolff believes that his team can improve the car and now needs to get as many points as possible. Due to Ferrari's dropouts, Mercedes is not far away from P2.

Wolff explains back pain Hamilton

"The pep talk is first to look at ourselves. We had great reliability, but it lacks performance. The guys up front are just too quick at the moment. I’m sure we can unlock it, and therefore, all the points we get right now can be very valuable at the end," the team boss continued.

The Mercedes bounced heavily again on the straights in Baku, even causing Hamilton to suffer a significant back strain. "It’s the banging on the ground. It’s up to 6G that we are generating in vertical load, so it’s not muscular anymore, it’s the bones. The drivers sat together, and all of them, but one, agreed that something needs to be done, but I don’t know what could be done," Wolff said.