Regardless of admitting that discuss of closing on Crimson Bull is an phantasm, Toto Wolff insists that Mercedes 2024 contender is just not one other dud.
Experiencing his worst qualifying in Melbourne since 2010, Lewis Hamilton claimed that there’s “a lot of work wanted” to be finished on the W15, a declare with which Wolff concurs.
“We’ve got a automobile that is tough,” admitted the Austrian, “you might be narrowly out and in of the window.
“It is the entire interplay of aerodynamics and mechanical and the tyres,” he continued. “It is by no means a single subject.
“However we’re going to simply hold our heads down and push by this,” he insisted. “I believe it is an phantasm to go nearer to Crimson Bull within the quick time period however I nonetheless must imagine that there’s extra on this automobile.”
“I imply, it is three years in a row, comparable feeling,” stated Hamilton after qualifying. “There’s these spikes of ‘ah, it might be good’, like this morning, however then it sort of disappears.
“If we are able to work out a means of discovering that goodness within the automobile and making it extra constant and holding onto that, then we might be extra aggressive,” he added. “There’s a lot of work we have to do, however everybody’s working as exhausting as they will.
“Observe felt actually good for us,” he stated of the morning session, “and I used to be actually feeling optimistic going into qualifying. However then, I do not know if it was the wind selecting up, the wind picked up fairly a bit, identical as yesterday, after which the automobile is simply a lot extra on a knife-edge.
“I have never finished a long term so I do not actually know,” he replied, when requested about tomorrow, “however the different automobile has. “Everybody’s so quick, so… but it surely’s a brand new day, we’ll nonetheless strive. I am going to give it every little thing and transfer forwards.”
Requested if he and his teammate have been attempting completely different methods, as was usually the case in 2022, the primary 12 months of the brand new rules which clearly caught Mercedes on the again foot, he stated: “In 2022 we weren’t splitting. George was doing one factor and I used to be attempting each set-up that there was to attempt to assist the crew attempt to discover choices and determine how we are able to repair it.
“It is just about the identical, a bit bit just like this 12 months, I am attempting a lot of various things however I believe this weekend we’re a lot nearer.”
Take a look at our Saturday gallery from Melbourne right here.
