After qualifying in Florida, Mercedes sport director Toto Wolff grudgingly admitted: “We’re learning exponentially, but it’s tough at the moment. Of course, we were hoping for a better result.” The astonishment of the silver is great after the drop in performance compared to the day before.
Out already in Q2: setback for George Russell in Miami
When researching the cause of the Hoppel relapse, Mercedes is once again faced with a puzzle. Wolff: “We tried something after yesterday that didn’t seem like a big change, but obviously affected the car badly and threw us back. We tried to further optimize the downforce level, but that caused us to bounce again.” Particularly bitter for the Viennese: “We couldn’t fix it for qualifying, although we went back to what we had yesterday.”
For Miami, Mercedes has not changed the design approach of the W13, which still manages practically without side boxes. Interesting: Wolff continues to defend the extreme concept, but admits for the first time on Saturday that it is an Achilles’ heel of the car.
“We believe that our concept has the potential to be at the front with it. But it’s also a sensitive concept: if it’s in the window, it works well. But it’s very difficult to get into that window because with us the underbody is more exposed than in other cars,” says the Austrian, looking at the ultra-slim Mercedes.
However, Wolff does not believe in throwing the concept away early and concentrating on a new development for 2023: “The rules remain the same. Our understanding is growing every day. And we have always said that this weekend here is still one thing for experiments is: yesterday was good, today is not. But we haven’t given up yet and are going back to the simpler solutions.”
The engineers’ search for clues continues at Mercedes
But do the drivers have the same patience as the team boss? At least the young Russell looks extremely pissed off after his early qualification on Saturday: “To be honest, it’s quite inconsistent: we thought we had a pretty conservative set-up to avoid bouncing and then it suddenly is as bad as this morning. Yesterday I thought I was fighting for pole. Today I’m 12th which is my worst qualifying session of the year. It’s disappointing.”
Striking: Only one person is really happy at Mercedes in Miami on Saturday: Lewis Hamilton. The reason should be obvious: With sixth place, he gets some much-needed air in the internal duel with Russell, who has recently been getting stronger and stronger. “It was a much better qualifying session than in the last races. I’m very grateful for that and I’m happy to take it with me,” commented a grinning Hamilton on the actually weak Mercedes result.
