Wolff not happy with the W14: 'THEN the car is very difficult to drive'
F1 News
Mercedes had a qualifying with two faces in the Netherlands. On the one hand, things went very well in the dry, which George Russell demonstrated with a third place in Q3. On the other hand, the Mercedes drivers struggled in the two earlier parts of qualifying. Especially during the 'crossover' points, the W14 is very difficult to drive, argues the team boss.
Hamilton eliminated early at Zandvoort
While Russell qualified handsomely third at Circuit Zandvoort, Lewis Hamilton will start the race only 13th. The Briton struggled in the semi-wet conditions as well as being held up by Yuki Tsunoda, for which the AlphaTauri driver received a penalty. In the end, Hamilton was just under a tenth short of the final part of qualifying, and so the seven-time world champion was stranded in Q2.
Wolff sees weak spot W14
"I think you're very kind if you're saying we have problems in the crossover period. I think we have issues everywhere with crossover," Wolff began opposite GPblog and others. The Mercedes team boss is referring to his team having a very difficult time during transition periods from rain tyres to intermediate tyres and from the intermediates to the dry weather tyres.
"The car is just very difficult to drive. It's snappy, it's unpredictable. If you can put it in a sweet spot then the car is fast. We've seen that with George today, but we need to be realistic. We could have been on P2, maybe, the worst starting position, but you need to look at the gap to Max, and that is just something we need to close. Seventh-tenths is seven-tenths."
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