Wolff displeased after qualifying: 'It's not great'

F1 News

toto wolff spanish grand prix qualifying reaction
22 June at 17:25
  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

Did Mercedes underperform in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix? Toto Wolff believed that there was more that could have been achieved by his team around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. After upgrades for the German team improved the W15 and gave them their best result of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix, there was potential for back-to-back pole positions to be taken after George Russell did so in Montreal.

Despite Lewis Hamilton and Russell taking P3 and P4, respectively, Friday in Barcelona highlighted the potential for another P1 to be taken on Saturday. They were able to lock out the second row of the grid for Sunday's race which Wolff was pleased about, but the Austrian CEO knows that more was on offer for Mercedes.

Wolff says Mercedes were too optimistic

"It's not great," said Wolff, speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying. "But third and fourth could have been fifth and sixth because it was so close with the Ferraris. Three-tenths off of the leaders, it didn't look that way yesterday, but maybe we've been too optimistic with yesterday's performance. Today was a different day, so overall, it's a solid result of all of that."

It was a highly competitive qualifying session, with Lando Norris beating out Max Verstappen by +0.020 seconds to take the second pole position of his career. Hamilton and Russell were able to out-qualify the two Ferraris, and Hamilton was able to beat Russell in qualifying for just the second time in 2024.

"I think he's always been energised," continued Wolff, taking about the seven-time World Champion. "The gaps are so tiny, you can see today, it's been swaying one direction or the other. And I'm happy that it went well for him today.