Mercedes made progress with its 2024 Formula 1 car which was masked due to an “atrocious” first stint at the Japanese Grand Prix, according to team boss Toto Wolff.
Following the first-lap shunt between Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo that triggered a red flag, Mercedes switched Lewis Hamilton and George Russell onto Hard tyres.
However, the pair became detached from their rivals ahead and reverted to a conventional two-stop to finish the race on the quicker but less durable Medium compound.
Russell capitalised on a slight mistake at the chicane to pass McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for seventh on the final lap, while Lewis Hamilton trundled home ninth behind him.
However, Wolff is adamant that Mercedes was more competitive than the final result suggested as a result of the time it lost during the nascent stages of the grand prix.
“When you look at the results seventh and ninth in qualifying and seventh and ninth in the race, that’s clearly not good and everybody knows that,” Wolff said.
“But we’ve definitely made a big step forward in where and how we want to run the car and in our understanding.
“This was one of the worst tracks for us last year and we were pretty close to the front runners, not Max, but the guys behind in qualifying, that came as a surprise.
“We were very quick through the esses where last year we were nowhere and today in the race, when you look at how it unfolded, we were trying to make a one-stop stick, probably overmanaged the tyres and had an atrocious first stint, but a very competitive second and third stint.
“The moment we basically did what the others did and that would have looked completely different.
“So seven and nine [is] just not good, full stop, there’s nothing to add, nothing to paint pink, but I think we’re going away from Suzuka, not happy with the result, but definitely there’s more to come.”
Wolff had revealed that Hamilton’s struggles a fortnight ago in Australia derived from a five-degree change in track temperature between final practice and qualifying.
But despite the temperature rocketing up to 40 degrees for the race, Wolff denied that the increase was behind Mercedes’ slump during the opening stint at Suzuka.
“It was three degrees different in track temperature between stint one and stint two,” he disclosed.
“So as much as I believe there is a relationship between our performance with the track temperature, I don’t think it was the reason for our off-performance in the first stint.
“It was trying to extend it to a one-stop, losing lots of time with the open gates, more so than the track temperature.”
Mercedes remains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, 35 points adrift of McLaren ahead and a sizeable 86 points behind Ferrari, who reside in second place.
However, Wolff points to McLaren’s resurgence from being a backmarker to a regular podium fixture last term as evidence that all is not lost for the German marque.
Asked when Mercedes can battle Ferrari and McLaren, Wolff replied: “I think you can only look back and say how did last season run and you can see the fluctuations in performance.
“Ferrari was not very good and then eventually turned it around and it was the second force in the later stage of the championship and the same with McLaren. It was even a bigger swing; they were not getting themselves out of Q1 and at the end were regular podium contenders.
“I think these swings will still happen and at the moment we are not able to fight them but we will. That’s certainly a realistic target, much more realistic than Max [Verstappen].”
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