Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits that this year’s W15 is still “full of surprises” as its form continues to fluctuate from race-to-race.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could not better sixth and ninth in China, the latter having worked his way up from 18th on the grid.
Hamilton had a much stronger sprint event on Saturday, even leading briefly before losing out to Max Verstappen.
Nevertheless overall it was a disappointing weekend for the Brackley team, which now has its sights set on an upgrade package that will be introduced at the upcoming Miami GP.
“I think what you’ve seen today with P6 and P9 is not satisfying,” said Wolff after the Shanghai race. “We’re trying to manage our expectations, knowing that the car is full of surprises.
“It was in a good place on Saturday, much better, we were able to – apart from maybe Max – be there, benefiting of course from the battle behind us.
“And it shows that when you’re able to run more in clean air, when you’re at the front, that the performance is better. But today probably with P6 we’ve maximised what the potential of the car was, and that’s just not good enough. And we all know that.”
He added: “I think the car is a difficult car to set up, and difficult car to drive. And that’s why you have these oscillations in performances, in my opinion.
“And I think where Lewis’s car was today was certainly far away from the optimum, and then he’s driving it on the knife’s edge. This where we are. And let’s say for Miami, we are bringing some new bits. It will be interesting to see how they’re going to perform on the car.”
Hamilton started Sunday’s main event on the soft tyre, although he didn’t get much performance out of it.
“The theory said he should have a strong start with the softer rubber,” said Wolff. “And the grip just wasn’t there on the soft, and I would more put it down to our own performance, that we couldn’t really make the steps that we expected. And obviously then it becomes very difficult.”
Wolff insisted that the Ferrari-bound Hamilton is not losing faith.
“I think that Lewis is a pro and has behaved in that way until now,” he said. “Trying to keep his morale up, and the morale of the team, even if the results don’t come. So I think I have no doubt that this is going to last.”
Adam Cooper F1 