Wolff: "Nobody in the team thinks that kind of deficit is acceptable"

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27 August at 19:05
Last update 27 August at 20:52
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  • GPblog.com

Toto Wolff is not happy with what he saw from his team in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. This is not so much to do with the performance of Lewis Hamilton or George Russell, but more with the fact that the W13 is still a diva. Mercedes does not understand the behaviour of its own car.

"That was a very disappointing qualifying result, no matter that penalties for other cars tomorrow will push us up the grid," Wolff began to say in his employer's press release. Where Mercedes were on pole position in Hungary, the difference with Max Verstappen's Red Bull was almost two full seconds. In four weeks' time, a lot seems to have changed.

Mercedes still doesn't get it

The German team is shocked. "Nobody in the team thinks that kind of deficit is acceptable, and even now after 14 races, we don't understand how to consistently get performance out of this car. We seem to have high drag on the straights and haven't given either driver a balance this weekend to give them confidence," said the 50-year-old team boss.

Mercedes has proved many times in 2022 that Saturday need not be representative of Sunday's speed. Although Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc will soon be coming from the back, Wolff hopes to bring home a nice number of points. "Hopefully tomorrow we will have better race pace than we showed today, but we know that no matter our finishing positions, we have a lot of work ahead of us."