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Mercedes team principal has said he is "very down," after his drivers came home in second and fifth in the Malaysian Grand Prix. On the surface it did not look a bad result for Mercedes, after they stretched their lead in both the constructors and drivers championship, but this did not tell the whole story of the Grand Prix, as they were clearly the third quickest car on the day, behind the Red Bull and Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton benefitted hugely from Kimi Raikkonen not being able to start the Grand Prix and Sebastian Vettel starting from the back of the grid, as Vettel's race pace suggested that they would have been more than a match for the Mercedes on a clean weekend. Hamilton also could not match the pace of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen throughout the race, with the Dutchman taking an impressive second victory of his career.
Bottas struggled even more in the race, clearly holding up Daniel Ricciardo in the early stages and even falling victim to a charging Sebastian Vettel after a lonely race, with his pace a long way off of his teammates, eventually finishing a whole 43 seconds behind Hamilton.
Wolff said this on the team's race:"I'm very down, you cannot look at it and say we have scored more points than Ferrari - we have lost so much pace this weekend.We were half a minute down on Ferrari and probably if Max had pushed to the end we would have been half a second down on Max.
"How can a car that is so fast on many circuits lose so much with the tyre that is overheating? In Singapore we were really good in the wet. At the moment is about keeping calm and trying to analyse it. If you look at the real pace today it would have been P5 and that is worrisome.
"We have a couple of days in Suzuka, a completely different climate, and we will know more by then.On paper Suzuka should suit us. There were some question marks over Malaysia - we should have been quicker than we were but Suzuka should be much more in the window. Once I have digested the race I will think about the six points we have gained over Ferrari but right now it's still sore."
Sam Gale
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
974 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (4)
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Posts: 1,874
If I were Wolff, I would really worry about the fact that I'd just signed another contract with Bottas and will have to do with him for yet another year... What a bad performance of Bottas!
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
You got both cars to the racing line, and you even got one car to P2, and you dare complaining about it? Ooooh... Ooooh Toto Wolff!
f1ski
Posts: 726
They were so close on pace early in the season. Now my style doesn't suit the car. I am fighting for a title. Perhaps they have seen an issue and need Bottas to collect data. The perfect driver willing to eat crow
james Gordon
Posts: 1
Have you censored Hamilton's thoughts re 'the knee' for USA F1 ?
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Big brother now involved with free speech in F1 ?