Describing the Japanese Grand Prix as a “testing” experience, Toto Wolff, the head of the Mercedes team, shed light on how this approach adversely affected Lewis Hamilton due to severe tire degradation. This led him to willingly allow his teammate, George Russell, to pass him on the track.
Although Hamilton had outperformed Russell in qualifying for the first time this season at Suzuka, he surprised many by offering to yield to Russell when the latter approached him from behind. This gesture was promptly executed as the two Mercedes drivers swapped positions during the race.
The outcome for Mercedes was less than ideal, with Russell finishing in P7 and Hamilton in P9, a reversal of their qualifying positions.
However, Wolff chose to view the situation positively, asserting that Mercedes had approached the fourth round of the F1 2024 season as a form of testing, which ultimately yielded favorable outcomes.
“The result is really bad. Qualifying and race resulted in the same outcome. But it was a testing phase at that moment,” Wolff conveyed to Channel 4.
“We’re in a position that we’re fourth in the championship and lots of room to the back and we are orientating ourselves forward and that’s why we need this mileage to understand.
“And this week it was really positive. We changed the car upside down on what we’re doing to it and we had some real performance.
“Suzuka last year was among our worst tracks. We were pretty close to the frontrunners in qualifying and then second and third stints today, the moment we decided it was a two-stop we were very competitive and the first stint was atrocious. So in summary, good learning, really bad on the final points table.”
Regarding Hamilton’s surprising willingness to yield to Russell, Wolff attributed it to experiments conducted on Hamilton’s car that exacerbated front tire wear. Consequently, Hamilton chose to act as an exemplary team player, especially during a period when Mercedes was primarily in a “testing” phase.
“There’s an easy explanation behind it,” Wolff began, addressing Hamilton’s decision to yield. “Lewis again also we experimented on some things on his car and it looked like there was much worse degradation because of that on the front axle.
“And that’s why he said ‘I’m going to let him pass’, because it’s testing like I say. And that was extremely fair play.
“It wasn’t like he was giving up a position for a podium, it was really trying to understand why wasn’t he fast at that stage and that was clearly because we were doing something to the car which we wanted to try.”
Heading into Round 5 in China, Mercedes finds themselves in P4 in the Constructors’ standings, holding just a one-point advantage over Aston Martin. However, Toto Wolff expressed the desire for Mercedes to advance and compete with McLaren and Ferrari as the season progresses.
Currently, Ferrari holds a substantial 86-point lead over Mercedes, while McLaren maintains a 35-point buffer ahead of the Mercedes team.
“We had a double DNF in the last race [Australia] and that’s not going to reflect well on the points,” Wolff stated, “but I think our battle is with McLaren. Hopefully, we can catch back up to Ferrari.
“And this is just a constant process now that I think we’ve turned the page I believe in how we analyze the car, how we develop it, how we’re setting it up. That is not reflected in the result this weekend, but definitely will be in the short-term future.”
Russell’s fifth-place finish at the inaugural race in Bahrain stands as the highlight of Mercedes’ performance in the F1 2024 season thus far.
