Toto Wolff ‘angry’ but Mercedes W15 F1 car has architecture to catch Red Bull.
Toto Wolff admits he is “angry” at Mercedes’ current competitive state but believes the team’s 2024 F1 car now has the architectural baseline needed to catch Red Bull.
20 May 2024
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Mercedes have introduced upgrades at the last two races in Miami and Imola in a bid to cure their struggles to strike a balance between performance in high-speed and low-speed corners, a major weakness of the inconsistent W15.

Mercedes finished over 35 seconds adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who claimed his fifth win in seven races. “I think we never had such clear indications like we’ve had in the last few races where we really saw that the car was either going really fast in the high speed or in the low speed, but never both of them together,” Wolff told media including Crash.net at Imola. “That’s something that we are able now to slowly dial out.”

Wolff conceded Mercedes’ current level of performance is simply “not good enough” but stressed the eight-time constructors’ world champions are now on the right path after two seasons of “zig-zagging”. “I don’t know how often I used the stable platform, I think a stable platform is a car where you know which development direction to take,” he explained. “Where you think you can be in the best performance, and that has been the zig-zagging over those last years, and there have been these false dawns absolutely.

“Zig-zagging”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/104890...catch-red-bull


Toto Wolff gets brutal with Mercedes staff after being raided by Ferrari
Toto Wolff has made some frank comments about his staff roster following a string of key departures.
May 19, 2024
Harry Smith
Daily and Sunday Express

Toto Wolff has seen key members of his team depart for Ferrari. Toto Wolff has suggested that some members of his staff ‘had to go’ amidst a series of key departures. Jerome d’Ambrosio and Loic Serra both completed moves to Ferrari ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about the high turnover of staff in recent months, Wolff said: “We’re in a really good spot because we had eight consecutive championships and then it started to deteriorate and part of that is also human component.

“And I think how it’s shaping up now some wanted to go, some we had to go, and in the same time we’re adding fresh joiners. All of that with the leadership of James [Allison], who does so well, he’s such an inspiration for the team, that I feel we’re in an upward trajectory with the motivation, the energy and the competence.”

‘Brutal’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...rcedes-Ferrari


Toto Wolff’s ‘some had to go’ response to Mercedes losing key personnel
19 May 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Losing Loïc Serra and Jerome d’Ambrosio to Ferrari, Toto Wolff isn’t worried about the loss of key personnel as he insists some people “had to go” as Mercedes bring in others.

Mercedes have struggled in Formula 1’s ground-effect aerodynamic era with just one since the beginning of 2022 while this season, even with a heavily-revised W15, neither Lewis Hamilton nor George Russell have stepped onto a Grand Prix podium yet.

On Friday, the team also confirmed the departure of chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino, who has officially begun his six months of gardening leave. His next destination has yet to be confirmed. But despite losing three key people, Mercedes motorsport boss Wolff insists the Brackley squad are in a “good spot” as they’re also recruiting “fresh” personnel.

‘Some had to go’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-w...-key-personnel


Mercedes’ “small step forward” not reflected in Imola result – Wolff
20th May 2024
Written by Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Mercedes made some progress with their W15 at Imola but it wasn’t reflected in their drivers’ finishing positions, said team principal Toto Wolff. Wolff said the changes have improved the car’s performance, but as their closest rivals McLaren and Ferrari also found gains with their cars, the effect was masked.

“It’s not possible to see it in terms of the result, but we have taken a small step forward this weekend,” said Wolff. “Our closest competitors have also done so recently, but we have closed the gap to the front a little.” Hamilton finished 35 seconds off race winner Max Verstappen at the end of 63 laps without a Safety Car appearance. In the last race completed under green flag conditions, at Suzuka, the first Mercedes home was 48 seconds behind the winner.

“We still have a lot of work to do and of course, we are all frustrated finishing P6 and P7,” Wolff continued. “There is more to come though and it is all about making incremental gains. These are what we need to keep delivering if we are to get ourselves in the fight with the three teams ahead of us.”

“Small step forward”;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/05/20/...-result-wolff/


Lewis Hamilton offers concerning Mercedes update as Toto Wolff set for more pain
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have endured a frustrating start to the 2024 campaign, and their pain is projected to continue.
May 21, 2024
By Harry Smith
Daily and Sunday Express

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the upgrades currently in the Mercedes pipeline are not enough to close the gap to Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. The Silver Arrows are currently languishing down in P4 in the Constructors’ Championship and were in a different league to their rivals in Imola. Discussing his performance at the Emilia Romagna GP, Hamilton said:

“I think my pace in the second stint was comparable to the guys that are out towards the front. But I think we’re still lacking two or three tenths.” Bridging that gap may prove difficult, “That I cannot tell you,” he replied when asked if Mercedes could catch the top three teams. “I don’t have… that deficit, like I said George [was] five-tenths off yesterday and in the race probably three or four tenths. That’s not in the wind tunnel at the moment development-wise.”

However, according to Hamilton, these changes had little effect on his team’s performance. “Not a big difference,” he revealed after the chequered flag in Imola. “Small steps, but very very small.” In fact, the performance gain from Mercedes’ upgrades was so incremental that Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur poked fun at them. Asked by Motorsport Italy whether or not they were closer to challenging his team, he replied: “The Mercedes? They were 28 seconds behind Charles at the end of the race, so yes, I think they got a little closer."

‘Not in the wind tunnel’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...Wolff-Mercedes


Peter Windsor disagrees with Toto Wolff comment after Hamilton and Russell struggles
Mercedes endured another frustrating Grand Prix at Imola on Sunday as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished sixth and seventh respectively, and Peter Windsor has had his say
20 May 2024
By Harry Brent Senior Sports Writer
The Mirror

Toto Wolff has been slammed by ex-Formula 1 team boss Peter Windsor who claims that Mercedes have made "no progress at all". Sharing his thoughts via his YouTube channel, the 72-year-old suggested that Hamilton and Russell's similar lap times to Yuki Tsunoda indicate very little progress being made at Mercedes in the past year, reports the Express.

He pointed towards other teams, commenting: "McLaren are proving their worth, Ferrari have improved a lot last year". He went on to criticise Mercedes' assertions of progress: "It's only Mercedes really who keep saying, 'Yeah we've improved a lot with small bits here and small bits there', then it's one step forward, half a step back.”

"And in case of qualifying, Toto Wolff saying we're right up there, we're only half a second away from the poll shows the sort of improvements that we're making. And yet at the same time, the two Mercedes [drivers were] split by Yuki Tsunoda in the second B team Red Bull car, which isn't progress at all."

‘Assertions of progress!!!’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...imola-32851044


Toto Wolff explains why George Russell’s team order request was rejected at Imola
Toto Wolff addresses why Mercedes didn't accept George Russell's request to adopt team orders at Imola.
19 May 2024
Connor McDonagh

Russell was the only driver inside the top 10 to complete the race on a two-stop strategy. As a result, Russell dropped behind Hamilton on track as Mercedes switched their drivers. When pitting, Russell inquired whether Mercedes would tell Hamilton to give P6 back at the end of the race given that the former had run ahead for the majority of it.

Explaining the situation at the end of the race, Wolff said that Russell’s second pit stop was a “safety call”. “We haven’t spoken,” Wolff said. “His lap times were getting slower and slower. Our forecast, at the time, said he wouldn’t make it to the end. “We didn’t want to lose the position to Perez. So that was the call.”

“The forecast was three or four laps short, to make it.” If Russell hadn’t made a second stop, Wolff feels that Hamilton would have beaten him anyway. “Lewis would have probably taken him, anyway,” he added. “The point is, we are racing for P6 and P7. We, at least, wanted to keep the Red Bull behind. It was a safety call.”

“Safety call”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/104883...rejected-imola