F1 News
Wolff and Mercedes pinpoint blame for woes in Miami: 'Don't understand it'
Toto Wolff has blamed the tyres for Mercedes struggles in Miami. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton even tried the medium tyres in the third qualifying session but they couldn't beat McLaren or Ferrari. The frustrations are continuing to grow inside the Mercedes garage.
Why did Mercedes struggle in Miami?
Hamilton was seen sliding around the circuit during qualifying as he struggled for grip. Mercedes have often described the car as acting like a "diva" over the past two years. Upgrades have come and gone, including one this weekend in Miami, but they are still off the pace. This time though, Wolff does not blame the car directly.
"Hamilton puts out a lap that is a tenth away from everyone else in Q3. And then in the next run nothing works. That's the science we don't understand at the moment with tyres. That's no excuse, but everyone else understands it better," Wolff told the German branch of Sky Sports.
"If you have a really fast car, [the small mistakes] are lost. If a tenth of a second distinguishes between respectable and not respectable, then of course it makes everything worse."
In 2023, McLaren made a big step forward, and Ferrari are seemingly quite close to Red Bull over a single lap. Mercedes boss Wolff sees this and wonders why it's not the same for Mercedes.
"The others are always taking these steps forward and for us it's incredibly slow and unsatisfactory. It's hair-pulling. You just have to admit it and it's annoying that we keep falling back into situations where the same problem keeps occurring. No explanations, no excuses. It's just not good enough. We'll keep developing and hopefully get on the right track like McLaren did last year," Wolff concluded.