F1 News
Wolff desperate for Mercedes to showcase "necessary learning" in Baku
Toto Wolff hopes Mercedes can showcase the "necessary learning" in the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix after two difficult weekends. Mercedes went into the summer break as the in-form team, winning three out of the previous four Grands Prix. Since the return of F1 in Zandvoort, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell haven't been able to stand on the podium.
Hamilton himself was left furious with his own qualifying performance in Monza and even suggested the team deserved better. He said they might get that with Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025. Still, it became clear that Mercedes could not extract the same level of performance as the likes of McLaren and Ferrari managed to do in Italy.
They remain over 100 points shy of Ferrari's tally in the Constructors' World Championship. Ahead of the race in Baku, Wolff reports that the German team has spent time analysing what happened in Zandvoort and Monza during the off-week.
"We head to Baku aiming for a better performance than we showed in Zandvoort and Monza. Both were difficult races for us. Our relative pace was not as strong as it was prior to the summer break and several of our competitors took a step forward. We showed good pace at moments across both weekends but were unable to unlock this consistently. We have spent the time since then analysing why this was," Wolff said.
Wolff wants to showcase learning in Baku
"We have the opportunity to show we have done the necessary learning and made improvements both for this weekend in Azerbaijan and the following week in Singapore. Both are challenging street circuits. They are bumpy, have many low-speed and 90 degree corners, but also feature plenty of high-speed sections. They pose a very different test to the ones we faced in the Netherlands and Italy. We are focused on ending the season as strongly as possible. There is plenty of racing left and we will be fighting for every point possible, starting this weekend in Baku," Wolff added.