Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has struggled to explain how George Russell managed to take such a dominant win in the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
The German marque found a purple patch at the Marina Bay Circuit, with Russell taking a mesmeric pole position, following it up with a commanding victory on Sunday.
As soon as Russell powered off the start line, it never looked anything other than a formality, with the challenge of Red Bull and Max Verstappen failing to come to fruition.
And with McLaren unable to overhaul Red Bull on the tight, twisty nighttime venue, Russell was left virtually unchallenged to take his second win of the year.
When asked about how the team optimised its package, which has not shown much consistency during the middle-to-latter part of the season, Wolff was at a loss for words.
“You tell me,” the Austrian told media including Motorsport Week. “That [Singapore] was never a nice place for us in terms of car performance.
“And if you would have told me that we were dominating in the way we did today, I would not have believed it.”
Mercedes finds sweet spot in its ‘surprise box’ in Singapore GP
Despite the W16 being a car that has often struggled in hotter temperatures, it has always worked well on circuits with less load.
And with Marina Bay largely consisting of slower corners, there would always be a chance for the Silver Arrows to extract something from the race, similar to how Russell achieved his victory in Canada earlier in the year.
Even after free practice, which, due to its stop-start nature and Russell’s crash in FP2, things looked aligned towards a miserable weekend for the team.
But even in the midst of this, there appeared to be a somewhat unfounded air of confidence blowing through the humid Singapore air.
However, Wolff was also happy to acknowledge that even the quickest teams this year, including Constructors’ Champions McLaren, have found difficulties in some races.
“These cars are just a surprise box,” he voiced. “If you ask McLaren why the last three races haven’t gone at all, they would probably struggle for answers.
“And the same way, Max coming back and then lacking performance again today, and the same with the Ferraris oscillating between success and failure.”
Wolff recognised the fine margins in optimising the most from any package this year, but indicated that once the right balance was struck in Singapore, the W16 was looking like it could achieve what it eventually did.
“It’s just that margins are so small in having the car in the right aerodynamic window, in extracting that maximum mechanical grip without killing the tyres, and the sweet spot of the Pirellis obviously.
“That doesn’t always correlate what you see in the virtual world, in the simulations, to what happens on the track.
“But [in Singapore], from the get-go the tyres, driver and car were just in sync and not to be beaten.”
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