F1 News
Wolff critical: "We have a little diva on our hands"
- GPblog.com
It is no secret that Mercedes had startup problems during the winter test in Bahrain. To what extent they have applied the well known 'sandbagging' we will only see during the first race weekend. For team owner Toto Wolff, the problems are a source of frustration.
That problems that the team had during the test was clear, especially with the low mileage. There were gearbox and balance issues that left Valtteri Bottas stranded for hours and Lewis Hamilton spinning in the gravel trap. Whether these problems were present across all sessions remains to be seen, but Wolff insists there was no sandbagging.
Sandbagging or real problems for Mercedes?
"Over the years we have achieved great results and that is why everyone says we are sandbagging," Wolff said in conversation with Austrian network ORF. "I think we drove with the most fuel of anyone, but other than that the car was a bit 'toxic' to drive. It was pretty unstable, especially with the crosswinds."
He continued: "It looks like we've got a little diva, like the car from two years ago, that we haven't quite figured out yet." However, the limited number of test days also played a part. "The fact that we could only test for a few days didn't help either. We don't understand the car the way we want to yet. We have some small problems that need to be solved, so we are definitely not as well prepared as other years," Wolff ended.