Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has admitted the team’s latest setback in Australia has meant its chances of catching Red Bull in the short term is an “illusion”.
Having sustained troubles across the first two practice sessions, the German marque was optimistic its overnight changes had produced the desired results in FP3.
Lewis Hamilton classified fourth on the timesheets, 0.092s adrift of the benchmark pace, with George Russell slotting behind his team-mate to complete the top five.
However, Hamilton was bemused with the handling of his car as he slumped to a Q2 exit, while Russell qualified eight-tenths off Max Verstappen’s pole time in seventh.
Wolff branded Mercedes’ current predicament as “not good enough” as the team’s struggles to understand the inconsistent nature of its revamped package continued.
“It’s especially underwhelming because we were within a tenth in FP3,” Wolff told Sky F1. “The conditions were a little bit different but there’s no excuse.
“I think we have a car that’s difficult and you can be narrowly in and out of the window.
“As much as I’m annoyed myself, saying this for a long time, we just need to continue working on it and trying to get better.
“It’s not because of a lack of trying that we are where we are, but it’s not good enough.”
Both Hamilton and Russell have denied that Mercedes’ 2024 challenger is a replica of its flawed predecessor, citing that it’s now a more benign and driveable machine.
Wolff denied that dialling in more balance to the car would absolve Mercedes of its problems, doubling down on his prior statement that it has a “fundamental” issue.
“I think it’s more complex than that – it’s the whole interaction of aerodynamics and mechanical and the tyres,” he added when that proposition was put to him.
“It’s never a single topic, but we’ve got to just keep our heads down and push through this.”
Wolff has accepted it would be wrong to consider Mercedes as a potential challenger in the coming rounds to Red Bull’s RB20, which has remained unbeaten to date.
“I think it’s an illusion to grow closer to Red Bull in the short term,” he conceded. “But I still have to believe that there is more in this car.
“You see those performances like this morning, you know, that is not a bad car that is able to achieve that.
“But it’s so tricky, to be in and out of the performance window and we’ve just got to continue to work on it.”
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