The one in Melbourne was a difficult qualifying session for Mercedes. For Toto Wolff, there are no excuses.
After a tough day of practice on Friday, the team made several changes. If FP3 gave positive feedback, qualifying proved to be a more challenging affair. Conditions had changed: the increase in track temperature and the shift in the wind direction left Mercedes struggling. Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in P11, and George Russell secured P7.
“It is underwhelming because we were within a tenth of the pace in FP3,” he told Sky Sport F1. “The conditions were a little bit different, but there is no excuse, we have a car that is difficult, and you can be narrowly in or out of the window.”
The Mercedes team principal is annoyed at saying this, but also in Australia, the team’s work wasn’t good enough.
“It is not because of a lack of trying that we are where we are, but it is not good enough. It is the whole interaction of aerodynamics, mechanics, and the tires. It is not a single topic that is wrong, but we’ve just got to keep our heads down and push through this.”
By the way, Toto Wolff found something positive about the car’s performance.
“It is an illusion to get closer to Red Bull in the short-term, but I still have to believe that there is more in this car – and you see the performance in FP3, that is not a bad car. But it is tricky to be out of the performance window, so we’re just going to continue to work on it.”