Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has admitted that the advances it has forged with its 2024 Formula 1 car have become redundant due to losses in other areas.
The German marque sustained an encouraging start to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend as Lewis Hamilton capitalised on an opening to secure second in the Sprint.
However, that upturn proved to be shortlived as Hamilton slumped to a Q1 elimination and recovered to ninth, while George Russell finished in a distant seventh place.
Hamilton had proclaimed that he had sampled a set-up avenue that was too extreme on his W15 car post-Sprint, which contributed to combating obscene understeer.
Despite revealing it has inherent downforce that is not translating to lap time, Wolff has conceded that Mercedes can’t continue to dwell on the rare positive moments.
Speaking to ServusTV in Shanghai, Wolff expressed: “Not satisfied at all. Maybe a small highlight with second place in the sprint race, but the performance is not there.
“We can keep telling ourselves that there were bright spots at the weekend, but we have to take a step.
“We’ll bring something to Miami, where hopefully we can expect something. But today you’re behind the Ferraris and behind [Lando] Norris. Just not good enough.”
Mercedes elected to overhaul its car concept to eradicate the recalcitrant characteristics of its predecessor but stumbled across a “fundamental” high-speed problem.
However, Wolff has pointed to the squad’s strength through the esses at Suzuka earlier this month as an example that it has since tempered those nascent concerns.
But the Austrian, who renewed his deal on the eve of the current season, has acknowledged that improvements there have been nullified with weaknesses elsewhere.
“I think we absolutely achieved that, in the high speed we were super competitive, also in Suzuka through the Esses; it was day and night compared to what we had before,” he said.
“The drivers were speaking about it as the best car they had in the last two-and-a-half years. Then we really didn’t perform in the low speeds.
“So you gain half a second in the high speed, but you lose half a second in the low speed. The equation is back to zero, so that is something we need to improve.
“We are beyond the point of understanding and we just need to improve now. That is what it needs to hop to, and we have all the facts on the table.
“We know what we tweaked in order to solve the high-speed, and we know where the car was before to be quick in the low-speed.
“Now we just need to bolt the car together that does both of them.”
