Despite Promising Improvements, Toto Wolff Adds to Lewis Hamilton’s Misery With an Honest Admission on the Mercedes Car

Lewis Hamilton would want to forget the Chinese Grand Prix weekend as soon as possible. For a driver who has won six times at the Shanghai International Circuit, Hamilton barely managed to get his car into the points after a disappointing qualifying on Saturday. Having started the race in 18th position, Hamilton struggled in his first stint on the soft tires, quickly getting rid of them to save his race.

However, despite a decent strategy, Hamilton could only get up to 9th place, something he believes was the best the team could have achieved in the race. And while Mercedes is bringing some upgrades for the W15 in the next race in Miami, Toto Wolff admitted that their car is far from where they want it to be on the grid.

In a statement after the race, Mercedes mentioned that Hamilton struggled with rear tire temperatures due to the car’s balance, which affected his overall performance. While Hamilton benefited from the safety car period, he was ultimately not able to close the gap to Oscar Piastri sufficiently to challenge for a higher position near the end of the race.

Team principal Toto Wolff echoed these sentiments during his conversation with Sky Sports F1. He said, “I think considering where we put the cars altogether, drivers and team, was not a good position for today. Not good enough overall. Lacking pace. We have got to dig deep.”

He admitted that their car was not good at the moment and they pushed the experiment with the setups too far with Lewis Hamilton. “It’s not an OK car,” Wolff added. “I think we can see what the mistakes were that we did on the car. I think we wanted to go a bit more aggressive to see, ‘Is it something that is so different that we need to do on the car?’ And, yeah, you can see Lewis today who took it on him also [to do the experiment]. That was maybe a step too far.”

Amidst the continuous disappointment, there is at least a silver lining for the Brackley-based squad as the team plans to bring upgrades in Miami.

Toto Wolff thinks the upgrade in Miami will be a ‘good step’

Despite the heartbreak in China, Toto Wolff has assured the fans that the team is preparing for a significant improvement for the upcoming Miami Grand Prix. He revealed that Mercedes is expecting a notable step forward in performance that will help them close the gap with the teams in front.

“We have something coming for Miami that looks like a good step. Let’s see where that brings us out,” said Wolff. When asked further about the potential impact of these upgrades on lap times, Wolff remained cautiously optimistic, stating, “Let’s see, hopefully, a bit. Until then, we’ll be back in the factory next week and just try and position the car better for Miami.”

Do you think Mercedes can catch up to Ferrari and McLaren in the development race in 2024? Only time will tell.