Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits the team’s double retirement from the Australian Grand Prix has provided a “brutal” experience for the team to digest.
Mercedes has endured an inauspicious opening to the campaign, with a non-score in Melbourne resigning the squad to its worst start to an F1 season since 2012.
Lewis Hamilton was climbing from his starting spot of 11th when his engine failed, while George Russell crashed from sixth on the last lap chasing Fernando Alonso.
The result leaves Mercedes stranded fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 26 points, less than the maximum haul of 44 points Ferrari took with a 1-2 finish.
“Tough to take. Super tough,” Wolff said. “And I would be lying if I would say, you know, at any moment I feel that, you know, I feel positive about the situation and optimistic.
“But you just need to overcome the negative thoughts and say we will turn this around. But today it feels very, very, very brutal.”
Hamilton has bemoaned how inconsistent the Mercedes W15 has been across each weekend, with Wolff citing that the lap times in the race reflected those complaints.
Asked about the margin to Ferrari, Wolff said: “I think he was 40 seconds back when I looked. Or maybe was it Norris? Like 40 seconds behind Norris, but it’s maybe better than 80!
“I think there were times in the race where we massively lacked pace, and then there were times when, at the end, when you compare like for like, we were doing OK.
“Still not where we want to be, but you could see in the second stint, Fernando on the Medium, we couldn’t come anywhere close. And the lap times looked like a second off the McLarens.
“And then suddenly in the last one, when we went for it, not worrying too much, the lap times were competitive. Not science, but it was much better.”
Wolff has reiterated the stance that Mercedes believes its revamped 2024 car retains the inherent potential to be a marked improvement on its troubled predecessors.
The Austrian has pointed to the reversal in results Ferrari and McLaren have obtained compared to last term as evidence that Mercedes can recover from this setback.
“So, clearly, we started the season in the belief that this car is better than it was last year,” he continued. “And then we look at last year and look at these guys: Leclerc crashed out, and Sainz was fourth and got relegated to outside of the top 10 because of the penalty, but on the road he was fourth. And McLaren was on 17, 18, 19, and they are 40 seconds ahead of us [now].
“So, obviously, on one side, you know, I wanted to punch myself on the nose, but on the other side, it is also a testimony.
“It’s a testimony that when you get things right, you can turn it around pretty quickly, and you’ve just got to continue to believe. But at the moment, it is a very tough time.”
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