Regardless of admitting that speak of closing on Purple Bull is an phantasm, Toto Wolff insists that Mercedes 2024 contender shouldn’t be one other dud.
Experiencing his worst qualifying in Melbourne since 2010, Lewis Hamilton claimed that there’s “a number of work wanted” to be carried out on the W15, a declare with which Wolff concurs.
“We’ve got a automotive that is troublesome,” admitted the Austrian, “you may be narrowly out and in of the window.
“It is the entire interplay of aerodynamics and mechanical and the tyres,” he continued. “It is by no means a single subject.
“However we’re going to simply hold our heads down and push by way of this,” he insisted. “I believe it is an phantasm to go nearer to Purple Bull within the quick time period however I nonetheless need to consider that there’s extra on this automotive.”
“I imply, it is three years in a row, comparable feeling,” stated Hamilton after qualifying. “There’s these spikes of ‘ah, it might be good’, like this morning, however then it sort of disappears.
“If we are able to work out a manner of discovering that goodness within the automotive and making it extra constant and holding onto that, then we may be extra aggressive,” he added. “There’s a number of work we have to do, however everybody’s working as arduous as they will.
“Observe felt actually good for us,” he stated of the morning session, “and I used to be actually feeling optimistic going into qualifying. However then, I do not know if it was the wind choosing up, the wind picked up fairly a bit, similar as yesterday, after which the automotive is simply a lot extra on a knife-edge.
“I have not carried out a future so I do not actually know,” he replied, when requested about tomorrow, “however the different automotive has. “Everybody’s so quick, so… but it surely’s a brand new day, we’ll nonetheless strive. I will give it all the pieces and transfer forwards.”
Requested if he and his teammate have been attempting completely different methods, as was typically the case in 2022, the primary yr of the brand new rules which clearly caught Mercedes on the again foot, he stated: “In 2022 we weren’t splitting. George was doing one factor and I used to be attempting each set-up that there was to attempt to assist the group attempt to discover choices and determine how we are able to repair it.
“It is just about the identical, a bit bit just like this yr, I am attempting a number of various things however I believe this weekend we’re a lot nearer.”
Take a look at our Saturday gallery from Melbourne right here.
