Wolff speaks of four-tenths gap with Red Bull: "This is where we are"

Mercedes seemed to be getting closer and closer to Red Bull Racing's speed at the end of 2022, but the German racing stable seems to be back to square one. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were some six tenths slower than Max Verstappen and the prognosis for the longruns does not look rosy, according to Toto Wolff.

Prior to qualifying, the Mercedes team boss revealed to the German branch of Sky that he was not happy with the W14. "The concept is not as strong as we thought. We are a second slower in the long runs. We are not happy. We had a year to see if the development was right or not, now we know we are wrong and it is up to us to make the right decisions," said Wolff, who does not rule out that the concept with the very narrow side-pods will now be jettisoned after all.

Wolff knows it has to be better

Afterwards, Wolff chimed in with Sky Sports. "The gap is not ridiculous considering we only ran one tyre at the end, but it's not where we want to be. We are continuing to develop the concept, and thinking we could land it and fight for pole position and that was not the case today."

Had Hamilton and Russell still left on a new set, the gap would have been smaller. "It's maybe about four-tenths [the gap to Red Bull], but those are all irrelevant calculations. That is the gap and that is what we need to find out more about if we want to win. They both didn't have clean laps, and a tenth and a half was still in there. Maybe we could have overtaken Alonso but this is where we are," Wolff said.