After Lewis Hamilton’s Shock in Miami, Frustrated Toto Wolff Badly Criticizes the Mercedes W14: “Just Really Went South”

The Qualifying session of the Miami GP is something the LH army would want to forget. Lewis Hamilton, who finished P2 in FP1, saw himself eliminated from Q2, managing only a P13. There have been numerous times when we have seen Hamilton call out the car for its poor development. Now the billion-dollar man has chimed in and criticized their own development of their priced challenger.

Both the Mercedes drivers were found struggling in the elimination zone for long periods of Q1 and Q2. Although Russell managed to make it into the top-10 shootout by 0.052s, the 38-year-old driver failed to do so. Disappointed Lewis Hamilton, pinpointed the blame on the team for mismanagement and lack of pace in the car. This time the continued misery of Mercedes left even the team principal, Toto Wolff frustrated. 

Utterly perplexed with the car’s behavior, Wolff said, as quoted by Speedcafe, “The car is not a nice car, not a good car. The basic performance of the car is the lack of understanding of the car. I would say the performance is just really bad, and for George and Lewis it just really went south. You could see in the first sector the car really wasn’t there.”

“When things go bad they compound bad and this has happened for him (Hamilton) and for all of us as a team. I take no enjoyment from finishing sixth. It’s the lack of comprehension of what it is that makes this car such a nasty piece of work.”

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Hamilton’s bad run doesn’t seem to whither away as the challenger simply doesn’t suit the man’s driving style. But we do see bits of brilliance from W14 which is giving confusing signals to the team.

Sometimes flying, Sometimes Struggling – Mercedes squad ‘confused’ after Miami qualifying 

Spirits were high at the Mercedes garage after a smooth FP1. George Russell even went on to say that Mercedes can be the second-best team after topping the timesheets. But that happiness was only short-lived. The young Briton went into qualifying confident, hoping they’d be just about three-tenths behind Red Bull. But the inconsistent performance of W14 left him unhappy and ‘confused’. 

Despite the lack of pace in the car, Russell got lucky and qualified sixth – much ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Although the Briton is happy to be starting that high, he says he’s ‘not going to take any pride’ in it. He said, “We’re working for more and we’re capable of more. It’s challenging as in FP1, everything felt smooth. As the weekend has progressed, the feeling in the car has got worse. It’s rare that that happens but it just hasn’t quite come together here in Miami.”

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George Russell will start the Miami Grand Prix from P6, while Lewis Hamilton will have to settle for P13.