F1, Miami GP: Mercedes Car ‘A Nasty Piece of Work’ Blasts Toto Wolff

A livid Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff labelled his staff’s automotive as a “nasty piece of work” and expressed frustration at the lack of improvements made to the vehicle in the past year.

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton finished 13th in qualifying on Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix and George Russell narrowly made it into sixth place on the grid as Mercedes again failed to keep pace with the dominant Red Bull.

Both Mercedes drivers struggled with their car in the tricky conditions on the resurfaced Miami track.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has pole position heading into Sunday’s race and adding to Mercedes woe, Fernando Alonso, in the Aston Martin, with a Mercedes engine, finished second-fastest.

Wolff was certainly in no mood to consider Russell’s grid position any kind of positive.

“I take no enjoyment from finishing sixth. It’s the lack of comprehension of what it is, that makes this car such a nasty piece of work,” he said.

“The car is not a nice car, not a good car,” mentioned Wolff.

“I’d say the efficiency is simply actually unhealthy, and for George and Lewis it simply actually went south. You might see within the first sector the automotive actually wasn’t there.

“When issues go unhealthy they compound unhealthy and this has occurred for him (Hamilton) and for all of us as a staff,” he said.

Last year the Mercedes struggled at Miami with bouncing but Wolff said he said he expected more improvement from the past year’s work.

“It is worse than I thought, we have had 12 months since we were last in Miami and the car is just marginally better.

“Maybe it is not bouncing on the straight but that is the only thing that is better than last year. The car is not fast enough and we haven’t got any comprehension why that is. It is just not acceptable,” he mentioned.

Hamilton mentioned the automotive’s troubles had made it laborious for him to push for a entrance row place.

“It was a tough session. We’re not that fast so we actually wanted excellent laps nevertheless it was tough to get right into a rhythm, firstly I had that concern with the automotive going sluggish within the final nook,” Hamilton continued.

“The last run I was the last of the pack and trying to get the temperatures into the tyres. I was at the back of the queue and everyone slowed into the last corner and I lost all temperatures and couldn’t do the lap,” he mentioned.

Russell mentioned his sixth place was a “flattering end result” and that while Sunday’s race was the priority, the team needed to look further ahead.

“We’ll focus on tomorrow, but we need to think about the bigger picture and how we’re going to bring the fight to the guys at the top,” he mentioned.

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