Wolff after Japanese Grand Prix: "We have a clear direction"

For Mercedes, the free practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix gave them some optimism, as they looked to have found some improved pace and gained a better understanding of their W15 car. They may still have learned more about the car, but their results in Sunday's race were not what they would have been hoping for, as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could only finish P7 and P9, respectively.

After Russell finished in P3 in the final free practice session of the weekend, it looked like the German team had turned a corner and found some pace after a poor start to the season. However, they could not translate that into their race pace, losing out to both Ferrari cars, as well as Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso.

Wolff believes pace and understanding is "much better"

Team boss Toto Wolff spoke to F1TV after Sunday's race around the iconic Suzuka Circuit and said today's results were hindered by an "atrocious" first stint. "We need to analyse why that is, as the second and third stints were very good.

"That is the positive that we take from the race. It is live testing now for us. We've been on the back foot and now we've taken a different direction. And I think this is happening."

Wolff continued by talking about this different direction the team is taking with the W15, which seemed to improve its performance. "It was definitely much better, and there is lots more data that points us in the right direction, even if it's not reflected in the result.

"I think I can't wait to go racing in Shanghai. We just need to have a better start to the weekend. Some of the proof of concept that we've done here, we will be on the car. And then see what we can do in Shanghai.

"The experiments have worked. I think what I said, we have a clear direction. Even though the qualifying and race result doesn't reflect it at all. We've aimed for a one-stop. And then we found out it wasn't possible. We've probably over-managed the tyres. But the moment we picked up the speed on the similar stint lengths like the others, we were competitive."