Wolff Promises There Is 'More To Come' From Mercedes

Sunday, 07 April 2024 at 18:30

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The team principal suggested there is more to come from Mercedes after the unsuccessful 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

Silver Arrows looked much better ahead of the weekend at Suzuka Circuit than they did at any of the preceding tracks this season.

However, when it came to qualifying and race, the German team still somehow lacked performance compared to their closest rivals.

After the fourth round of the season, Mercedes just retained their fourth place in the Championship, only one point ahead of Aston Martin.

Despite the fact that nothing seemingly changed about his team's end result this weekend (compared to previous races), Wolff believes his team made a step forward:

"But we've definitely made a big step forward in where and how we want to run the car and in our understanding."

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"It was one of the worst tracks for us last year and [this year], we were pretty close to the front runners. Not Max [Verstappen], but the guys behind in qualifying – that came as a surprise."

Mercedes fell behind during their first stint on the hard compound tires but, apparently, matched the pace of Ferrari and McLaren during their second stint.

"We were very quick through the esses, whereas, last year, we were nowhere. Today, in the race, when you look at how it unfolded, we were trying to make a one-stop stick and probably overmanaged the tires and had an atrocious first stint."

"But [we had] a very competitive second and third stint – the moment we basically did what the others did, and that would have looked completely different."

Although the team principal asserted there was nothing rosy about his team's result, he seemed encouraged by gaining more understanding of the car and suggested, "There is more to come."

"Seventh and ninth are just not good, full stop. There's nothing to add, nothing to make rosy. But I think we're going away from Suzuka, not happy with the result but, definitely, there's more to come."