Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has revealed how his racing team wants to get the obviously unsatisfactory cars on track before the second Formula 1 Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia at the weekend.
Although Mercedes took a podium place at the season opener in Bahrain thanks to Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate George Russell finished fourth, the reigning Constructors’ World Champion was by no means satisfied.
The two Mercedes drivers drove too much behind the Ferraris of GP winner Charles Leclerc and second-placed Carlos Sainz in the race, and Hamilton and Russell were not able to do enough in their W13 against world champions Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. Only because the Red Bull duo had to give up with technical problems shortly before the end did the Bahrain Grand Prix end reasonably forgivingly for Mercedes.
Hamilton and Russell not only had to struggle with the notorious porpoising, which could sometimes be observed in extreme form, but also with far too much air resistance, as team boss Toto Wolff analyzed after qualifying.
“We lose time on the main straight, less on the other sections of the track,” said Wolff, adding: “Actually, we’re missing about half a second on a single lap.”
After the Bahrain GP, Wolff became even more explicit. “I think we drove with too much wing,” the team boss told Sky F1. “As a result, we had too much air resistance.” The whole thing is also due to the fact that the right parts are still missing, the Austrian continues. According to Wolff, this problem should be solved shortly.
Wolff: Mercedes in Formula 1 currently only “fifth and sixth”
The high drag negates a large part of Mercedes’ speed advantage on the straight, according to Wolff, who emphasized, however, that he wanted to turn every stone not only on the aerodynamics side, but also on the engine side to find more power.
With a view to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (March 27, 7 p.m.), it is now easier to solve the air resistance problem with radical means “by simply taking a chainsaw and cutting the rear wing into pieces,” explained Wolff exaggeratedly figuratively, adding, “This is how we’re going to do it for Jeddah.”
Due to the total failure of Red Bull, Mercedes is currently in second place in the team classification with 27 points, which Scuderia Ferrari (44 points) clearly leads. For Wolff, however, only a (happy) snapshot.
The real performance looks different. “Right now we’re only fifth and sixth on the track.” His racing team is trying to make up ground, but: “It doesn’t happen overnight.”