Wolff Stands By His Claims Of 'Solid Progress' At Mercedes During Japanese Grand Prix
F1Tuesday, 16 April 2024 at 20:00
Multiple experts disputed Toto Wolff's claims after the Japanese Grand Prix, but the Mercedes team principal stood by his statements ahead of the fifth round of the 2024 season.
Formula 1 is heading to China this week, and as is tradition now, the Mercedes F1 team released a Chinese Grand Prix weekend preview statement two days ahead of the first session.
In this statement, Mercedes's team principal commented on what he expects from the weekend at Shanghai International Circuit.
Firstly, the 52-year-old addressed the format of the weekend. Although teams will only have one practice session, new regulations allow them to change setups after the sprint race, which gives them more freedom. Wolff said:
"The changes to the format, including second parc fermé, will be an improvement to the rhythm of the weekend."
"The single hour of practice still puts pressure on to make correct decisions with imperfect information. We are looking forward to that test."
After the previous race- the Japanese Grand Prix, the Austrian team principal claimed his team made significant progress, which confused many fans because Mercedes's drivers finished in P7 and P9.
Former F1 driver Christian Danner reacted to Wolff's statements, saying the team principal must have been watching a different Grand Prix.
Another former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit, Karun Chandhok, fact-checked Wolff's suggestion that Mercedes was much closer to the teams in front during their second stint.
Chandhok said he went back and checked the lap times. The German team slightly improved throughout the race but still lost 0.6 seconds per lap on Sainz in the end.
On the other hand, we can't see everything that is happening inside the team, and Mercedes might have been experimenting with different setups, for example, which could lead to fundamental conclusions.
In Mercedes's press release, Wolff acknowledged that his team's result didn't reflect this, but he repeated that they made solid progress.
"The headline results didn't show it, but we made solid progress with our car in Japan. We are looking forward to building on that this weekend."
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