Mercedes – Syndication Server

Mercedes leaves Japan with answers despite ‘not good’ results

Toto Wolff believes the Japanese Grand Prix has yielded some important answers to perplexing questions for Mercedes as it gains an understanding of how to extract performance from its car. George Russell finished seventh and Lewis Hamilton ninth at …

Toto Wolff believes the Japanese Grand Prix has yielded some important answers to perplexing questions for Mercedes as it gains an understanding of how to extract performance from its car.

George Russell finished seventh and Lewis Hamilton ninth at Suzuka, a reversal of their qualifying positions after a frustrating weekend in terms of final results. However, Wolff says the previous race in Australia allowed Mercedes to prove it has raw aerodynamic potential in the car that is just simply not yet translating into the expected performance.

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“I think the car is so complex where we put it in terms of the aero balance and the mechanical balance, and these two need to correlate,” he said.

“We’ve followed a certain trajectory over the last years, and keep going in circles and we came to a point saying ‘okay we’re going to do something different here,’ because we are measuring downforce with our sensors and our pressure tabs and it’s telling us we have 70 points more downforce in a particular corner in Melbourne than we had last year, but in lap time it’s not a kilometer per hour faster, so it doesn’t make any sense.

“So where is the limitation? I think we wanted to tick a few boxes to understand is there any limitation that we haven’t spotted, and I think there is.

“There should be more downforce than we believe it is, and now we’ve measured the downforce and it’s there, we’re just not able to extract the lap time out of it that we should and that simulations show us. It’s not trivial.”

Given the experiments Mercedes has carried out over the last few races, and with Hamilton actually stating how much happier with the car’s handling he was prior to Sunday, Wolff says the finishing positions should not distract the team from the signs of progress.

“When you look at the results – 7th and 9th in qualifying and 7th and 9th in the race – that’s clearly not good. And everybody knows that. But we’ve definitely made a big step forward in how we want to run the car and in our understanding.

“This was one of the worst tracks for us last year, we were pretty close to the frontrunners – not Max [Verstappen] 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 in the race when you look at how it unfolded we were trying to make a one-stop stick, probably over-managed the tires and had an atrocious first stint but a very competitive second and third stint once we basically did what the others did. That would have looked completely different.

“So seventh and ninth, just not good. There’s nothing to add, nothing to make rosey, I think we’re going away from Suzuka not happy with the result but definitely there is more to come.”

Wolff admits Mercedes situation is ‘brutally painful’

Mercedes is in a “brutally painful” position three races into the Formula 1 season, team principal Toto Wolff concedes. Mercedes has only scored a best result of fifth place so far this season, with both cars retiring from the last round in …

Mercedes is in a “brutally painful” position three races into the Formula 1 season, team principal Toto Wolff concedes.

Mercedes has only scored a best result of fifth place so far this season, with both cars retiring from the last round in Melbourne. Lewis Hamilton was out early with a power unit issue, while George Russell crashed in the closing laps chasing Fernando Alonso. A post-race penalty for Alonso cost Aston Martin two points and dropped it behind Mercedes into fifth in the constructors’ standings, and Wolff insists there is reason for optimism but he doesn’t know when Mercedes will turn its form around.

“When I look at the positives, I think we took many potential root causes out of the equation,” Wolff said. “We weren’t sure about our suspension. We weren’t sure about the stiffness of our gearbox carrier. We had a vibrating steering rack. All of those things have disappeared.

“But fundamentally, whatever we see in the tunnel doesn’t correlate with what’s happening on the track. It is not a single person that says, ‘I would interpret that data in this way’ and because of dogmatism, we’re not making any progress. I don’t see dogmatism. I see an open environment where people share, where people say, ‘Maybe in my area we are making mistakes.’

“It’s so tough — in my career, in everything I’ve done before, be it in finance and investment — that you know which screws to turn. Sometimes it takes time because back in my Williams days, I knew what was missing. But here, I don’t think we are missing something. It is just a complication of what’s happening with the car that we can’t see.

“It’s like an on-off switch. And then you see the progress that McLaren and Ferrari have made. This is the difference between last year and this year. [Melbourne] was a pretty good weekend for us last year. We were leading at the beginning, one and two. So we’ve got to really dig deep because it is brutally painful.”

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While Mercedes is arguably the fifth-fastest team at the moment, Wolff says the progress made by its immediate rivals behind Red Bull serve as a reminder of what is possible even after a difficult start to a season.

“I think there were times in the race where we massively lacked pace. And then there were times at the end when you compare like for like, we were doing OK,” he noted. “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.

“The lap times looked like a second off the McLaren’s. And then suddenly the last one, when we went for it, not worrying too much, the lap times were competitive. Not [matching Carlos] Sainz, but it was much better.

“So clearly, we started the season in the belief that this car is better than it was last year. Then you look at last year and look at these guys — [Charles] 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 17th, 18th, 19th. And they are 40s ahead of us.

“So obviously on one side, I want to punch myself on the nose. But on the other side, it is also a testimony of 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 very, a very tough time.”

Mercedes identifies correlation issues between sim and on-track performance

Mercedes has identified an area of its simulation models back at the team’s factory that could be a correlation weakness to address, according to technical director James Allison. The first three races of the season have seen flashes of strong pace …

Mercedes has identified an area of its simulation models back at the team’s factory that could be a correlation weakness to address, according to technical director James Allison.

The first three races of the season have seen flashes of strong pace from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, but a best finish of fifth place in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Both drivers retired from the last race in Melbourne where Allison again says the car was looking competitive for a spell, and he believes there is an aspect of the correlation between factory and the track that needs improving.

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“In simple terms, yes [there are correlation issues],” Allison said. “There are always correlation issues in every year in every team and there always will be correlation issues between what you see in the factory and what you see on the track, because the factory is a sort of reduced version of reality. It is not the same as driving a car on a real track on the actual asphalt of the actual circuit with all its infinite detail and complexity.

“You have simplified models back here in the factory and those simplified models are powerful for steering you one way or the other. But all of them have their shortcomings and all of them have their correlation issues. In large measure the models that we have, the simulation tools we have, are amazingly good at keeping us on the straight and narrow and guiding us towards more lap time. The devil’s always in the detail.

“In the area of the high- to low-speed balance, we could do with some improvement in that area of the models, because there we have some difference between what we are seeing on the track and what we are seeing back in virtual world. And those differences, if we can bring them closer together then it just allows us to be more accurate with the projections we make back here address the things that we believe are holding the car back.”

Another area Allison has identified as a weakness at Mercedes is when the track temperature increases.

“Almost no setup changes occurred between FP3 and qualifying [in Australia],” he explained. “We take fuel out of course, we turn the engine up to 11, all those things. But no significant difference on setup because we felt we got the car in a decent window in FP3 and that was reflected in the time sheets.

“But we are starting to see a pattern emerge that most weekends we have a period where we are feeling good about the car, confident about the car, but then in the paying sessions, in qualifying and the race, that slips through our fingers.

“If we were trying to draw that pattern together, then probably the strongest correlation that we can make at the moment is that our competitiveness drops when the track is warm, when the day is at its warmest and therefore the tire temperatures rise with those of the track.

“The times when we have been at our best have been all in the sessions which are the coolest and so that gives us some clues about what we need to do as we move forward from here. But from FP3 to qualifying in Melbourne there was not a setup change.”

Wolff would ‘love to have’ Verstappen at Mercedes

Toto Wolff admits Max Verstappen is a driver he would “love to have” at Mercedes next season but believes he needs to improve the car on offer to attract the three-time world champion. Verstappen’s future at Red Bull has come under increased …

Toto Wolff admits Max Verstappen is a driver he would “love to have” at Mercedes next season but believes he needs to improve the car on offer to attract the three-time world champion.

Verstappen’s future at Red Bull has come under increased scrutiny amid the power struggle that has been taking place following an investigation into Christian Horner’s alleged behavior, with Verstappen firmly backing Helmut Marko at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman stated Marko needs to stay or it could influence his own decision-making when it comes to remaining at Red Bull, and while the Austrian appears set to continue in his role, Wolff says he’d jump at the chance to sign Verstappen.

“Let’s word it like this, I think this is a decision that Max needs to take and there is no team up and down the grid that wouldn’t do handstands to have him in the car,” Wolff said.

“I’d love to have him, but first we need to sort out our car. First, we owe it to George [Russell] and Lewis [Hamilton] to improve the car and give them equipment that is good before dreaming about the future next year.”

With Mercedes securing a best finish of fifth in each of the opening two races, Wolff admits he expects Verstappen to want to stay at Red Bull given the dominance he is enjoying, even if he believes his management team are unhappy with current situation off-track.

“A driver will always try to be in the fastest possible car. That gives you the best chances of winning races and championships and this is where Max is at the moment. But Max is also … Jos [Verstappen] and Max and Raymond [Vermeulen, manager] are also people who are very straight, sometimes uncomfortably straight, and I think that’s something they will make up their mind on. But I think fundamentally a racing driver is calibrated to be in the best car.”

The links between Verstappen and Mercedes have gained more attention given the vacancy at Wolff’s team in 2025, as Hamilton heads to Ferrari. However, the team principal says he’s willing to see how the driver market plays out before committing to any replacement.

“I think we are going to wait. We are going to wait. We have a few interesting options and the more we are able to assess how the season pans out, young drivers with us against slightly older ones, that’s not going to be a decision that we want to take in the next few weeks, it will be in a few months depending on where it goes.”

Hamilton seeing positives despite ‘not fun’ results

Lewis Hamilton says he’s enjoying the racing battles he’s having but that finishing ninth in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is “definitely not fun” as Mercedes struggles for performance. Both Mercedes drivers have spoken more positively about the 2024 …

Lewis Hamilton says he’s enjoying the racing battles he’s having but that finishing ninth in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is “definitely not fun” as Mercedes struggles for performance.

Both Mercedes drivers have spoken more positively about the 2024 car than either of its predecessors, but could only line up side-by-side on the fourth row in Jeddah, with George Russell going on to finish sixth and Hamilton limited to ninth after being one of the few drivers not to make a pit stop under the early safety car. Despite his frustrations at the results, Hamilton believes there is still potential for Mercedes to unlock.

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“I wouldn’t say I’m having fun,” Hamilton said. “I’m racing for ninth, I can’t say that … finishing ninth is definitely not fun. I am enjoying the actual racing part and I was hunting and I was pushing as much as I could. I was maximizing everything I had with the car, was right on the edge but unfortunately just really lacking performance in the high speed where [McLaren] were all over us.

“But there are positives — the car is good in low speed, we have got some areas that we have to add a lot of load in the high speed. I think if we are able to do that then I think it puts us in the fight.”

It was a similar story for Russell, who did follow the more popular strategy of fitting hard tires early on and running to the end, but was unable to get close enough to Fernando Alonso to fight for fifth place.

“We’re still really trying to understand this car because we have shown true performance at points over the last two weekends,” Russell said. “FP1 straight out of the box we were top of the timesheets and always in the top three. FP2, P2, and then both weekends the pace has just fallen away from us.

“And that hasn’t been our competitors getting faster, that’s been us getting slower. So we need to understand why that is, but it’s fine margins now. It’s so close between ourselves, McLaren and Aston, and Charles [Leclerc] is just a smidge ahead, we just need to tap into a bit more.”

One area that Mercedes has been struggling is with bouncing, but Russell believes there are also other aspects that the team needs to get on top of.

“I think there’s more to it — it’s so complex these days. These cars are so complicated, couple that with the tires — the tires are very difficult as well — and right now we don’t have the answers.”

Russell believes Mercedes will try to sign Verstappen if chance arises

George Russell believes Mercedes will try to sign Max Verstappen if the possibility arise from the recent turbulence at Red Bull, and says that a partnership with the defending champion “would be exciting.” Verstappen won the season-opening Bahrain …

Verstappen won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix but against a backdrop of infighting at Red Bull, where his father Jos called for team principal Christian Horner to be removed from his role or risk the team being “torn apart.” The instability followed an investigation into Horner’s behavior that ends with a grievance against him dismissed, and with Verstappen Sr. also seen speaking to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff in Bahrain, the prospect of Verstappen replacing Lewis Hamilton in 2025 has become a talking point.

“I think any team wants to have the best driver lineup possible, and right now Max is the best driver on the grid,” Russell said. “So if any team had a chance to sign Max, they would 100% be taking it.

“I think the question is more on the other side — on his side and Red Bull’s side, obviously so much going on there. We don’t know truly what’s going on behind closed doors and ultimately it’s none of our business right now. I guess it would be exciting.”

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Russell has been racing alongside the most successful driver in Formula 1’s history since 2022, and says that experience gives him the confidence to welcome any driver as his teammate.

“This is my third season now alongside Lewis, the greatest driver of all-time, and I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job alongside him,” he said. “So whoever were to line up alongside me next year or in the years to come, I welcome anybody. I welcome the challenge.

“You always want to go against the best. But ultimately, for me, just focused on myself. I believe in myself, I believe I can beat anybody on the grid, and you’ve just got to have that mentality. So having Lewis as my benchmark the last couple of years has been a pretty good benchmark, for sure.”

Russell hoping qualifying gains haven’t hurt Mercedes race pace

George Russell admits he is surprised to have a top-three starting position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, but is hoping the team’s improved qualifying performance hasn’t come to the detriment of its race-length form. Mercedes appeared more competitive …

Mercedes appeared more competitive on longer runs than low fuel during the pre-season test in Bahrain last week, and arrived at the opening race aiming to find the best balance between the two. Russell says a trip back to the team’s headquarters to drive on the simulator between the test and race helped identify improvements, but he’s not sure what that will mean for how competitive Mercedes is on Saturday night.

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“I think after testing last week, we wouldn’t have expected to be qualifying third; and then yesterday driving, we made a lot of setup changes over the course of the weekend,” Russell said. “Lewis [Hamilton] and I were back at the factory, the team have been doing a really great job to find these small improvements. And we were fastest in FP2, Lewis and I P1 and P2, which caught us by surprise.

“But as we saw, it was so close out there. If you take Max [Verstappen] out of the equation, I think it was two-tenths between P2 and P8 or something. And I don’t think we’ve seen F1 like this for a long, long time. So we’re only dreaming and wishing that was fighting for pole position and victory. And I think we’re going to have a great battle on our hands for the next spot.

“I think what we saw in testing was our qualifying pace being a little bit offset, and our race pace probably being the next best to Max. Now we’ve improved the qualifying pace, we hope it hasn’t hindered our race pace.”

Russell noted that the unusual weather conditions further obscure the pecking order.

“It’s uncharacteristically cold here in Bahrain at the moment, I think tomorrow is going to be about 16 degrees (C, 61F) by the time we go to the race. We’re normally talking 30s or mid-30s (86-95 F) here. So there’s a lot of unexpected things to come. The soft tire is performing well around this circuit, and the race, maybe people do two sets of the softs, two sets of the hard, a medium. But it’s the first race of the season and think we’re all just excited to get going.”

Russell doesn’t believe the cooler conditions helped Mercedes be more competitive in qualifying, with the team generally struggling to get heat into its tires in the past.

“No, I’d probably say the opposite to be honest,” he said. “We historically have always struggled when the temperatures have been a little bit cooler, and that was always the case last year. But we know that with this W15 car, it’s a totally different beast, a car that we’re much happier with and probably the lessons we’ve learned over the last two years, we need to put aside and go in with a totally open mind.

“Time will tell when we go to the future races, but I’m feeling really happy in the car. I think the race is going to be really close with Charles, the Ferraris, with Checo [Perez] tomorrow. And we can see what we can do about Max, but right now, he’s doing an incredible job.”

Gap to Verstappen smaller than Leclerc and Russell expected

Charles Leclerc says the gap to Max Verstappen is smaller than he expected after setting the fastest time in qualifying but only ending up second at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen took pole position with the best lap in Q3, but Leclerc was the …

Charles Leclerc says the gap to Max Verstappen is smaller than he expected after setting the fastest time in qualifying but only ending up second at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Verstappen took pole position with the best lap in Q3, but Leclerc was the only driver not to improve in the final part of qualifying, and his Q2 effort was quicker than Verstappen’s pole lap. The Ferrari driver found the result bittersweet given the potential in his car, but is focused on what it says about the performance comparison with Verstappen.

“We could have done lots of things, but at the end we are P2 and three-tenths off,” Leclerc said in the media conference for the top three qualifiers. “I think it’s closer than what it looks on the timesheets, but this is a good thing. We were expecting Red Bull to have a bit more margin than what there was today, so we are a bit closer than what we thought. But the biggest question mark is obviously tomorrow in the race. I’m pretty sure they have a bit more margin than what we’ve seen today. But again, let’s wait and see.

“I think it is pretty in line with what we expected, and if anything it is a bit better than what we expected because, again, there was 0.2s or 0.3s in Q3 we could have found realistically in the car.”

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George Russell qualified third — 0.3s off Verstappen — but is less optimistic about the chasing pack’s chances in race trim.

“I agree with Charles — I think it was better than expected,” Russell said. “I think we all knew it was going to be very close between ourselves, Ferrari, Aston, McLaren and Checo [Perez], and I think the gap in qualifying today was probably slightly closer to Max than we expected.

“I think race pace is the important one and we are expecting probably 0.5s deficit — that’s what we thought after testing, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

With Verstappen raising his eyebrows at the claim, Russell asked the Dutchman: “You don’t agree?”

MV: “Half a second?!”

GR: “Is that too small?”

MV: “No, I think it’s way too big. But if you say that now then it is better tomorrow.”

GR: “Underpromise and overdeliver…”

Russell amused by drivers contacting him, Wolff over Mercedes seat

George Russell says he has had drivers contacting him as well as team boss Toto Wolff in relation to the vacant Mercedes seat that will be left by Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton is joining Ferrari in 2025, bringing to an end his 12-year stint with …

George Russell says he has had drivers contacting him as well as team boss Toto Wolff in relation to the vacant Mercedes seat that will be left by Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton is joining Ferrari in 2025, bringing to an end his 12-year stint with Mercedes and leaving one of the most competitive seats on the grid available. With multiple drivers also out of contract at the end of this season, Russell says he’s willing to be paired with anyone and has been receiving calls and messages himself as well as his team principal.

“It’s going to be an interesting few months to see what happens,” Russell said. “From my side, I’ve been teammates with arguably the greatest driver of all time for the past two years, and I’ve got no concerns at all who lines up alongside me. I want to be tested against the very best.

“I feel that’s what I’ve had the last two years. Whether it’s an experience driver or a young driver, I feel that personally I’m in a great position to help push the team forward and go into this next chapter for the team.

“I think for any team, it’s good to have harmony between the drivers, because that trickles down to all of the engineers and the whole team. But ultimately the decision is with Toto and the board.

“We’ve already had conversations — I’ve been with Toto a lot this winter, so seeing the drivers’ names pop up on the telephone is quite funny; and even on my phone as well, had quite a few phone calls and text messages.

“It’s been quite interesting. But as a team, we’re in a really good opportunity and position to go into this next chapter, to have so much success with Lewis and Mercedes, and [go] onto the next.”

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Whoever joins Russell is likely to still be chasing Red Bull according to the 26-year-old, saying Red Bull is “100%” the favorite even after just one day of pre-season testing.

“It (the W15) does feel a step in the right direction, but there’s no hiding that our competitors have also done a really great job. We know we had a mountain to climb with the performance Red Bull showed last year, for anybody to overcome that gap was a huge test. Definitely the car is feeling nicer to drive, but ultimately it’s down to the lap times.

“We still haven’t seen truly yet where everybody is falling out. But Red Bull seem to have done a really great job again, and they’re no doubt favorites.”

Russell focusing on W15’s improvement, rather than gap to Verstappen

George Russell says the Mercedes W15 is nicer to drive than the 2023 car after completing solid mileage during the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. When launching the 2024 design, Mercedes put an emphasis on making the car less …

George Russell says the Mercedes W15 is nicer to drive than the 2023 car after completing solid mileage during the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

When launching the 2024 design, Mercedes put an emphasis on making the car less challenging for the drivers, with a focus on improving the troublesome rear end of last year’s car. After completing 122 laps and setting a best time that was only 12th fastest on the leaderboard — some 2.7 seconds slower than Max Verstappen’s benchmark — Russell was feeling positive about the initial feedback from the car.

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“It was great to drive the W15 for the first time in anger today,” Russell said. “From hitting the ground, it felt like we had a good foundation to start from. We completed lots of laps and have plenty of data to go through tonight. We ended the day in a reasonably good spot, and we can build from here over the next two days.

“We will be focused on maximizing mileage for learning rather than chasing an optimum sweet spot with the car. Overall, the W15 does feel nicer to drive than last year’s car. We know that it’s not about the feeling, but the speed. Nevertheless, today was about learning and not about chasing performance.

“We’re focused on ourselves at this test, and it will only be next week where we see where we stack up against the others. It was a positive first day and I’m looking forward to being back in the car on Friday.”

Only Russell and Verstappen completed a full day of driving on the opening day of the test, with the rest of the grid opting to give a session to each of their drivers. Lewis Hamilton will take over duties from Russell on day two, with Mercedes then splitting running between the pair on the final day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.