Toto Wolff Vows To Improve Pitstops After United States Grand Prix Fail

Tuesday, 24 October 2023 at 23:00

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff admitted the team needs to improve their game in pitstops after the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton came very close to challenging Max Verstappen for the race win at the Circuit of the Americas during the United States Grand Prix.

The seven-time World Champion almost managed to close the gap to Flying Dutchman to one second during the last lap of the race. However, by that point, it was too late, and Verstappen finished first.

Lando Norris, who crossed the line in third position, said Hamilton had been the fastest car on Sunday. What did not help the Mercedes driver were his slow pit stops.

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Ultimately, the slow pit stops did not matter, as Hamilton got disqualified a few hours after the race. On the other hand, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff took the race as the final sign pointing towards much-needed improvement of pit stop times. As quoted by crash.net, he said:

"Our mindset in the last 12 years, is we don't need to be world champions in pitstops. We need to avoid very slow pitstops. And it's coming to a situation now where we realize that it has got so competitive, and we just need to ramp up our game up there."

The two Hamilton's pit stops clocked at 3.6 and 3.4 seconds. In comparison, Verstappen's pitstops were 2.5 and 3.3 seconds (which is below Red Bull's standard set this season).

In total, Verstappen saved 1.2 seconds, which is exactly the time Hamilton needed to close up on Verstappen in the last two laps of the race. Wolff concluded:

"That's in terms of equipment and science around it, and the way we are set up, to avoid 3 or 3.5 seconds pitstops because all of that played a part."

As a team aspiring to fight for titles, Mercedes must improve its pit-stop times. The team currently stands as the seventh fastest (out of ten teams on the grid) in pit stop times.