Wolff Statements Labeled 'Comments Of Frustrated Man' After Fact Check From Chandhok

Wednesday, 10 April 2024 at 12:15

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok fact-checked Toto Wolff's statements after the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

Looking purely at the results, the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix was Mercedes's second-worst race of the season so far, with only a double DNF in Australia being even worse.

While the team principal of Silver Arrows, Toto Wolff, suggested there was nothing rosy to say about the result itself, he did seem optimistic, saying Mercedes understood their car much better after the race.

The Austrian team principal also said Mercedes lost a lot of time in their first stint but had a "very competitive second stint."

This caught the attention of Sky Sports pundit and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, who said on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast after the fourth round of the season at Suzuka Circuit:

"Toto made an interesting comment to Ted (Kravitz) after the race, where he said the first stint was terrible and after that, it was not so bad."

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Chandhok went back and checked the lap times that Mercedes drivers were doing in their second stint, and he suggested it wasn't as close as one would assume based on the words of the team principal.

"I looked back at some of the numbers and it's little bit better, but in the first stint, they lost 11 seconds to Sainz in 15 laps, which is three-quarters of a second nearly."

"After that, they still lost on average about 0.6 per lap. So it was a little bit better, but not a lot better."

Based on the revelations of his look into the data, Chandhok asserted Wolff is just a "frustrated man" because his team is not doing well at the moment.

"So I think they were the comments of a frustrated man, who has come off a tremendous run of success and is again staring at another season, of the team that he co-owns, unlikely to win the World Championship. That's not the standards that he's used to or expects, I think, from the team."