Hamilton Not Looking 'Over Fence' At Ferrari According To Wolff

Wednesday, 27 March 2024 at 07:30

Team principal Mercedes, Toto Wolff, discussed the situation in his team following the third and probably the most underwhelming race of the season so far.

After the second race of the season, Toto Wolff admitted that the struggle with on-track data not matching simulations still persists in Mercedes.

Going into Australia, George Russell suggested the team had a few ideas they wanted to experiment with, and both he and Lewis Hamilton seemed to have regained confidence in W15 during the one-week break between the Saudi Arabian and the Australian Grand Prix weekends,

Silver Arrows yet again managed to show some potential in one of the Free Practice sessions, but both of their drivers struggled during qualifying and the race.

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What's more, neither of the two finished the race in the end. Hamilton retired due to engine failure, and Russell crashed on the race's final lap. Wolff told the media:

"I haven't lost that feeling that there is a good car, because there are sessions in throughout the weekend, and also the last two ones, where we are absolutely right up there in terms of performance, and then we lose it again."

"P3, [we were] within a tenth of everybody else. Quali, 7th, and then race pace was never there this weekend."

The team principal acknowledged the situation in which the seven-time World Champion finds himself at the moment, where, on the one hand, he is struggling with Mercedes. On the other hand, his future team, Ferrari, just scored one or two.

“I think the drivers are super in this whole setup because Lewis is as good as you can be. He’s in a situation obviously where, on one side, it’s super frustrating to see that we are not getting it.

"On the other side, look over the fence [at Ferrari], and it's pretty good what's happening there, but that is not his main priority today. And George is just a fighter and is digging in, and he knows that's his place, so we've got to sort this out."