Wolff states Mercedes are underperforming in all areas
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton leads his team-mate George Russell, both on the soft Pirelli tyres. Bahrain March 2022
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that it is not one singular area holding the team back, instead it is all of them.
The Silver Arrows were concerned about their performance heading into the 2022 campaign, and as the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix proved, they were right to have such worries.
Comfortably off the pace of leading pair Ferrari and Red Bull, Mercedes’ seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was forced to settle for P5 on the grid, while George Russell started from P9 after the gamble for his final Q3 flying lap backfired.
Of course, that was qualifying, so it remained to be seen how Mercedes would perform in race trim.
Sadly, that did not bring about much of an improvement, though Hamilton did record a podium finish after both Red Bulls suffered late retirements.
Russell meanwhile crossed the line P4.
It had been suspected that Mercedes’ biggest enemy was the ‘porpoising’, the W13 visibly bouncing away down the straights.
The simplest way to address it is by raising the ride height of the car, but due to this new era of ground effect aerodynamics, doing so would come at the cost of a heap of lap time.
Wolff though suggested that Mercedes’ problems are not so specific, instead, they need to make gains across the board to escape “no man’s land”.
He has already picked out pit stops as another area where Mercedes must up their game.
“We are not performing as we should in one single area,” said Wolff, as quoted by Sky Sport.
“We are somewhere in no-man’s land right now.”
As for how Mercedes steady the ship, Wolff made it clear that the problems with the W13 are physical, so with no magic fix coming their way, the team must work to figure out how they tap into the performance which they believe is there.
“It’s physics, not magic,” he stated.
“We need to understand how to awaken the performance we think is in the car.”
And the only way to do that is to keep pumping in the laps to gain a greater understanding of the W13.
“More kilometers, more laps – more insights,” Wolff affirmed.
Mercedes do not need to wait long for the next outing, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Round 2 of the 2022 season, beginning on March 25, with race day on March 27.
PlanetF1 Verdict
Wolff: Mercedes underperforming in all areas
Toto Wolff has revealed that the W13 isn't performing in any area.
