Mercedes made some progress with their W15 at Imola but it wasn’t reflected in their drivers’ finishing positions, said team principal Toto Wolff.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished sixth and seventh in yesterday’s race. After taking the chequered flag Hamilton told his race engineer Peter Bonnington the “car’s coming good.”“Still some work to do, though,” he added. “Let’s keep pushing, guys, thanks for the upgrades this weekend.”
Mercedes introduced aerodynamic upgrades at the rear of its car plus its floor and brake ducts last weekend.
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.”
The team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said it was “clear we have made progress this weekend, but our nearest competitors are also pushing hard.
“The race today confirmed that we need to continue to make these gains to be in the fight with the top-three teams. We are continuing to work on that, with the factory flat-out on development.”
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ianhaycox (@ianhaycox)
20th May 2024, 19:13
Who’s Toto trying to convince? The fans, the Mercedes board, investors, or just himself?
Sometimes it’s best to keep quiet.
Tristan
20th May 2024, 23:57
What’s with this best to keep quiet narrative? Same was said about Vowles.
What do you want? Just to hear Horner soundbites because they’re winning and everyone else to just not exist to the media?
Wolff is obviously spot on here, they didn’t fall back in this round of upgrades and kept or even relatively improved their pace compared to their competitors, and the drivers can feel the improvements.
You really think you know better than that?
Mayrton
21st May 2024, 7:04
He was probably asked. If not I totally agree. In general not so interested to hear anything this man has to say as only little he has said in the past turned out to be true. The team should consider replacing him to be able to grow again as he might be the main factor that is holding them back.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
21st May 2024, 6:33
Blah blah blah that is about as accurate as what Toto said when it comes to state of Mercedes competitiveness.
McLaren clearly shows that budget cap in combination with CFD/windtunnel restrictions work – Toto saying it is unfair and locks in advantage simply isn’t true as McLaren clearly and Ferrari slowly demonstrate. Toto’s doesn’t like it because he no longer can spend his way out of problems and actually have to be smart and efficient within the budget.
The grid is closer it has ever been looking at gaps in qualifying across the field – in the races of # of lapped cars is much less than in Mercedes dominance period. But odd that in Imola when it got tight at the front also the # of lapped cars increases – probably due to lack of safety car.
From 2026 it very likely is going to be like 2014 again – 1 engine manufacturer really gets it right and the rest is playing catch up with the major problem being that engine advantage tends to stay for longer.