Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen’s pace in the Miami GP was hampered by floor damage sustained when the Dutchman hit a bollard at the chicane.
Later in the race after a safety car period gave Lando Norris a free stop and the lead Verstappen was unable to challenge the McLaren driver, and gradually fell back.
Horner insisted that the consequences of the earlier incident played a role in allowing Norris to make his escape and consign Verstappen to second place.
“I don’t think we had a great balance all weekend, and then obviously he hit the bollard around lap 20,” he said. “And that’s actually done quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car. So we’d have to look at exactly what the effect of that was.
“He had enough pace at that point, he was he was pulling clear of Oscar [Piastri] behind, and Lando, before we picked up that damage. And then obviously thereafter we then pitted. And the safety car came out at the best time for Lando, it gave him essentially a free stop.
“But obviously not great for us, because then you’re on tyres that are six laps, seven laps older. And with the damage, I think that actually second place was actually still a pretty decent result.”
Expanding on the extent of the damage he said: “It’s a reasonable amount – the area around the left rear floor, there’s a reasonable amount that’s missing, and you can see it will be flexing as well. So it certainly wouldn’t be helpful.”
Asked if Norris had the pace to win without the aid of a safety car intervention giving him track position Horner said it was impossible to know.
“I think what we saw today was it was very difficult to come through the traffic,” he noted. “Who knows? That’s something that we won’t be able to answer, because there wasn’t a huge amount of overtaking in the top 10.
“So it would have all depended on where he came out after his pitstop, which would probably have been third or fourth.”
Horner insisted that with Verstappen’s Saturday sprint win taking into account it had still been a successful weekend for Red Bull.
“I think we have to congratulate Lando on his first victory,” he said. “It’s always a big moment for any grand prix driver to win their first race.
“So congrats to him and to McLaren. But we’ve still managed to score the most points in the drivers’ this weekend with the sprint race yesterday, and the most in the constructors’ as well. So it’s still been a very strong weekend.”
Regarding McLaren’s form he added: “They had good pace in the second half of the race. They were quick on the medium in the sprint race quali.
“We still managed well two poles here this weekend, a sprint victory and we were leading the race had it not been for the safety car. But you can see they’ve definitely made a step forward. So it will be then interesting to see what happens over the next few races once we head back to Europe.”
McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says that Lando Norris’s first GP win in Miami is a weight off the shoulders of both the Englishman and his team.
Norris scored his first victory early in his sixth season in F1, and in his 110th start at the top level, having previously earned 14 podium finishes.
Stella admits that there’s a collective relief at the team team now that it has provided him with a truly competitive car, helped by an upgrade package introduced in Florida.
“Realistically, I think it was a bit of a weight on his shoulders,” said Stella. “But it was some weight on our shoulders as well. Because we knew that as soon as we had made winning material available to Lando, he would have delivered, so we felt the responsibility.
“And I think I said that many times. We feel like it’s up to us, it’s not up to Lando. But credit to Lando that he kept developing. I think we already talked about how he developed over the winter, especially looking at for instance improving in qualifying, delivering laps that sometimes don’t have to be 100%.
“When you have a fast car, just be there. And I think he’s doing that. And also I have to say his race management is now very mature. As soon as he saw that there wasn’t much to do after the first lap, he started had to save tyres, because he knew his race would come at some stage.
“And then the pace he was able to pull off once the cars ahead of him pitted, then that was quite incredible. So fast in qualifying, even sometimes pacing himself, and very mature in the race in terms of getting the most out of the material he has.”
While a safety car period gave Norris a break in terms of track position Stella insisted that he was competitive in his own right.
“I already had early on some important clues, like when we saw Oscar [Piastri] overtaking a Ferrari,” said the Italian.
“Max was opening a gap, but he wasn’t as fast as usual, let’s say. And then when the cars ahead of Lando pitted and we saw what kind of lap times Lando was able to do, then even without the safety car, we thought like, if we keep Lando out, and we build a good gap, then we’re going be fast at the end with a fresh set of hard tyres.
“I think the victory sort of came with a little bit of help from the safety car. But I think we were in a strong position even independently, because the pace of the car was strong.
“We couldn’t necessarily see it in the other sessions, but we had spells of very strong performance at times. But we were uncertain whether the truth was the strong performance, or some of the disappointment like we had in the sprint qualifying three, for instance.”
Stella admitted that while Norris built up a handy lead in the closing laps the fear was that a safety car would allow rivals to switch to fresher tyres for the restart.
“The last laps, the main concern for me was the safety car,” he said. “Because it would have been difficult to make a decision when you leave the race as to like, do we stop or not to put some new rubber?
“And also you don’t know how long there’s going to be the race after the restart. So that was the main reason of concern over the final laps, and there were many battles. So anytime you see an overtaking, please don’t crash! So those were the thoughts at the end of the race.”
McLaren Formula 1 team boss Andrea Stella says that Kevin Magnussen’s blocking tactics in the Miami GP sprint race were “completely unacceptable.”
Magnussen picked up a string of penalties for going off track while trying to keep Lewis Hamilton behind. In so doing he prevented the Mercedes driver from attacking the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg up ahead.
Hulkenberg eventually finished seventh, and while Hamilton was eighth on the road he lost his point for a pit speeding offence. Magnussen’s penalties dropped the Dane to 18th. He was also subject to an unsportsmanlike behaviour investigation.
Although the tactics made no difference to the races of his own drivers Stella questioned Magnussen’s sportsmanship and suggested that penalty in such a case should see the driver banned for the race.
“For me, it’s actually relatively simple this case, because we have a case of a behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor,” he said.
“This behaviour is perpetuated within the same race, and repeated over the same season. How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential. It’s not five plus five plus five equals 15.
“Five plus five plus five equals maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, reflect on your sportsmanship, and then go back. And if we see that you’ve become loyal, fair, and sportmanslike to your fellow competitors, then you can stay in this business. It’s completely unacceptable.”
In addition to four time penalties Magnussen picked up three penalty points, taking his running total to eight.
“I guess the penalty points are still is in place,” said Stella. “So I don’t know exactly the situation for some drivers, I have to confess. But definitely it may mean that the metrics might have to be adjusted, damaging intentionally the race of competitors just makes no sense from sportsmanship point of view. And this should be addressed immediately.
“Because if you are out of the points, you get 20 seconds or whatever, at the end of your race, it doesn’t make any difference. But for the competitors you have damaged, you have put them out of their race, again, in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way. This is completely unacceptable.”
Asked about the reaction of the FIA stewards he added: “I think they just potentially they were surprised themselves from the fact that this was repeated. And I’m sure they are going to look into that. And by offering a strong opinion, I think I want to reiterate that these values of being fair, it’s a sport, it’s a competition, we need to give everyone a fair chance to compete.
“These values need to be taken into account in creating the appropriate set of regulations. But I’m sure the FIA will look into that. And we’ll come with sensible proposal for the sporting advisory committee to evaluate, and hopefully this will become soon either rules or guidelines that the stewards can apply.”
James Vowles has made a public pitch to Adrian Newey in an effort to attract him back to the Williams Formula 1 team.
Newey worked at Williams from 1990 to the end of 1996 before moving to McLaren, winning titles with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Damon Hill.
While rival team bosses are being coy about any potential interest they might have in hiring him after he leaves Red Bull Vowles made it clear in an FIA press conference that he sees Williams as a realistic potential home.
Vowles downplayed a chat he has already had with Newey, but suggested that a smaller team without manufacturer support might have its appeal.
“I mean, it was a light conversation more than anything else, saying it can’t have been an easy decision, and fundamentally wanting just to have an additional chat about things,” he said.
“But from a Williams perspective, obviously, that’s where Adrian really cut his teeth for the first time. And I think we’re a team without politics. It’s a small team that’s trying to make our way back to the front.
“And I think it could fit very perfectly for someone that wants to potentially dig into a challenge like that. More than that, I mean, what is great about Williams is that it has retained the family feel to it. We’re not driven by an OEM. We’re driven by just a group of individuals that want to be there. And it’s all about racing.
“And hopefully some of that plays to his strengths. And then finally with Adrian, you have someone with his accolades, with his touch.
“There’s not a team he hasn’t been to – and that includes McLaren, ourselves, Red Bull – where he hasn’t made a significant difference. And I think anyone here would be foolish not to at least open some conversation with him at that stage.”
Expanding on what makes Newey so special he said: “He’s an incredible character that has huge accolades behind him in the sport, well known for being the best designer really in his field. And that will have an impact, there’s no doubt about it.
“How much he was involved in Red Bull or not, I couldn’t say. We’re not buried within there. But what I can say is it [his departure] will have an impact. Of course it will, someone of his character and his strength.”
McLaren Formula 1 CEO Zak Brown says that Adrian Newey is just the first domino to fall at Red Bull Racing, and won’t be the last.
Brown suggested that Newey’s departure will trigger an exodus of talent from the Milton Keynes organisation, while indicating that McLaren has already received interest from its current employees.
He also made it clear that the Christian Horner controversy triggered Newey’s decision to leave the team.
“Am I surprised?,” said Brown when asked about Newey’s departure. “Six months ago, I would have been surprised. I think given everything that’s gone on since the start of the year and knowing Adrian pretty well, and he’s very high integrity individual. I’m not surprised.
“He’s moving on. I think the stuff that’s going on there is a bit destabilising. It’s probably the first domino to fall. I guess it’s not the last, based on the resumes that are flying around.”
Asked to elaborate on that claim he said: “Yeah, we’ve seen an increase in CVs coming our way from the team.
“I think Adrian is the most successful designer of all time. So in addition to the technical that he brings to the racing team, people want to work for people like Adrian Newey and work alongside him. So I think they’ll be missing what he brings to the team from a pure technical point of view.
“And then I think the leadership and the excitement people get from working with him will be missed.”
Brown insisted that McLaren is not in the race to sign up Newey.
“And as far as McLaren is concerned, I’m very happy with all the work the men and women at McLaren are doing,” he said. “I think we’ve started to show since last year, the second half of last year, that they know how to put performance on the car.
“So I’ve got all the faith in the world with the team that we have. We’re on a quest to get back to the front. And I think we have the people, the talent, the equipment, the drivers to get there. So we’re going to just stay the course.”
However Brown conceded that Newey would be a valuable catch: “With a resume and a track record like Adrian Newey, Adrian is going to add value to any racing team. But we’re very happy with the trajectory that we’re on.
“Never say never. But I’m very happy with the team, the technical leadership, the way Andrea [Stella] is running the racing team. And we’ve got a plan and we’re going to keep our head down.
“And of course, we always look for opportunities to make additive additions to the racing team.”
Charles Leclerc says that it would be “amazing” if Adrian Newey joins the Ferrari Formula 1 team after leaving Red Bull.
The Maranello outfit looks to be the most likely destination for Newey, with some Italian media reports suggesting that the deal is already done.
If it is eventually confirmed it would put Newey at Ferrari just as Lewis Hamilton joins as Leclerc’s team mate.
“I will obviously be very happy,” said Leclerc when asked about the possibility. “I think Adrian is one of those guys in the paddock that you hope to be working with one day in your career.
“We have an incredible team in Ferrari at the moment. And in the last seven to eight months, we are the team that have progressed the most. However, adding Adrian to a team like this will be amazing.”
Asked if Newey’s departure would weaken Red Bull Leclerc said: “I was surprised, I did not expect it. So it was an interesting news, and one of those news that makes a lot of noise once it’s out, as I had it everywhere on my social media.
“But yeah, will it weaken Red Bull? I mean, obviously every team’s there are lots of people involved, but some figures of a team make more difference than others. And I think Adrian is definitely one of them, as he has shown it with his path, that’s every time he’s been in a team, they’ve been very, very successful.
“It’s difficult for me to comment, because I don’t know how exactly it works within the team. But obviously Adrian being on the market of the engineers is definitely someone to watch, and someone that everybody in the paddock will want in their team.”
Leclerc is adamant that even without Newey Ferrari has made good progress under team principal Fred Vasseur.
“I think I’ve said it, in the last eight to nine months already, I think we’re in a very good moment for the team. And we are in a good spiral. Fred has always shared with me what was his medium to long term vision of the team, I have shared with him what I thought also was the right thing, and it’s going really, really well.
“I’m really happy with how it goes. And I think we are in a good place to attract the best people in the world. However, I have said it already, but we are really, really good team already.
“And in the last seven to eight months, we’ve done incredible progress. But whatever and whoever can come to make it even stronger, is super important. And Adrian is one of those guys that can make a difference.”
Leclerc stressed that getting the right people on board is one of Vasseur strengths.
“I think Fred’s vision and his ability to put the people in the right environments in order to extract the best out of everyone is something really, really amazing,” he said. “And that has made the difference, together with a very clear vision on which are the main points on which we need to focus.
“Again, it’s very, very clear, which are the points that needs to be improved, and tackled in the next few months.
“And that helps the team to have a clearer vision, and to really put all the energy on one or two things only. But then you really see the gains straight away, which is a good thing. So clarity, and putting the people in the best environment possible to extract the best out of them.”
Nico Hulkenberg says that Audi will have “a good opportunity to be competitive straight away” when it joins the Formula 1 grid in 2026.
The German is the first driver with a confirmed seat at the team, which will switch to full Audi identity after one more year in its current Sauber guise.
Hulkenberg, who drove for the Swiss outfit for a single season in 2013, believes that the new chassis and power unit regulations will give Audi a chance to get off to a flying start.
“It’s really difficult to tell, it’s really a white piece of paper,” he said when asked about his expectations for 2026. “And on one side, I think that’s good. It’s not a new team, but it’s going to be labelled a new team, because probably the know-how and advantage that current teams have, it’s wiped away a little bit.
“And it’s more of a level starting playing field for everyone. So, I think that offers a good opportunity to be competitive straight away. But expectations are always to be as successful as quickly as possible. I have no numbers for you on that.”
Hulkenberg says that the interim season in 2025 will give him a chance to find his feet at the team after over a decade away.
“It buys us some time, getting to know each other,” he said. “Still some faces I know from 2013, but also a lot of new faces.
“It’s still going to be a Ferrari power unit, so that’s not going to be foreign to me, but obviously to get to know the team, the infrastructure there, and then already try to help and steer certain things. But that’s then. Now I’m still pretty much in the season, and focused on what’s ahead.”
Although Hulkenberg achieved some good results with Sauber in 2013 he stayed for just a single season, reflecting the fact that it was not an entirely happy experience for him.
“It was obviously very different set of circumstances,” he said when asked by this writer for his memories of that year.
“I think the that with the team, everything was fine. It was only with one person, it was difficult. And that was the team principal, Monisha [Kaltenborn] at the time, which was a bit difficult, and a tricky situation.
“But everything else was fine. Every team I work with and race for I’ve never had problems with the team, with the mechanics, with the engineers. I’ve always enjoyed working with all the team members and working as a force, as a team, pushing for performance. So obviously now that’s quite different from back then.”
The above picture shows me at the top left, using my camera remote control to take a shot of Marco Apicella, Roland Ratzenberger and Mika Salo. We’re on a bullet train, on the way back to Tokyo after an F3000 race at Suzuka in 1993.
I originally wrote this story a decade ago on the 20th anniversary of Roland’s death at Imola in 1994, and it’s hard to believe that we’ve now marked 30 years since that tragic weekend. I hope it gives you a little taster of what he was like – it was a privilege to count him as a friend.
Today is the day the motor sporting world remembers Roland Ratzenberger, and I’m happy that his name still means something even to those who never had a chance to meet him.
I was fortunate enough to call him a friend. Indeed he was one of the best friends I ever had in motor racing, and someone who played a game changing role in my life. I think about him often, and not just on April 30.
I was pleased when the makers of the Senna documentary went out of their way to find a clip of him talking to Simtek engineer Humphrey Corbett at Imola – footage of Roland is hard to come by, and it was the first time in years that I’d heard his voice, or seen him talking.
Recently I’ve been digging through boxes of ancient microcassettes, and many feature Roland. Mostly he’s talking about understeer or oversteer at whatever race we happened to be at, and I regret that we never sat down and properly talked through his career. The closest I got was when we talked through the 1986 Formula Ford Festival as a Race of my Life for Autosport. The struggles he faced to even get onto the grid that weekend were a reminder of just how hard he had to work to make it.
I had first met Roland when he was starting to make a name for himself in Formula Ford in the UK. He was basically running his own show, working on his own car, having got his start by preparing machines for drivers of lesser talent and teaching in racing schools. He didn’t have a manager, and everything he did was as a result of his own hard work.
I got to know him more as he worked his way through F3, British F3000, touring cars and into sportscars. He was always keen to forge relationships with journalists, as he was well aware of the value of the media. But it was his charm and sense of humour that caught your eye, rather than any boasting about his achievements.
When I was on the staff of Autosport and he was racing in Japan I’d often ring him for the latest gossip and for the inside story on what had happened that weekend. In the summer of 1991 I decided to go and see the Japanese scene for myself, and my two-week trip started with a local Group C race at Fuji.
I’d been to Fuji and Suzuka several times for World Sportscar Championship races, but I was always passing through on the way to a race, and had never had a chance to spend any time in Tokyo. On Sunday night after the Fuji race some of the drivers took me on my first ever tour of the city’s Roppongi nightspots, which proved to be a real eye opener.
We started in Charleston, an Italian restaurant, and then went on something of a bar crawl. Gradually Johnny Herbert, Thomas Danielsson, Volker Weidler and the rest faded away, until just Roland and myself remained in a grotty dive called Deja Vu. We had a few more beers, and I can remember Roland teasing a lady of the night who seemed convinced that she had bagged him as a customer. She finally got the message and left us.
Roland and I were the last customers, and as we departed, they were putting the chairs on the tables. It was daylight as we stumbled back to the President Hotel, and somewhere along the way we came to the conclusion that I should come to live in Japan to cover the local racing scene, and give the overseas drivers some extra publicity back in Europe. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.
The following March I duly turned up in Japan with a couple of suitcases at the start of what turned out to be a two-year stint in the Far East. It was to be perhaps the defining experience of my life, and I formed bonds with drivers that are still in place today, all these years later. I also met the future Mrs C, who was working in Tokyo. And without that drink-fuelled conversation with Roland, it would never have happened.
My first race weekend in 1992 was a Suzuka F3000 event. A team had booked me a hotel room at the Circuit Hotel, and when I discovered that it cost £120 a night – about £120 more than my budget – I was stuck. Roland took pity on me, as he had a spare bed in his twin room, and he was happy to have some company.
That weekend he happened to be driving a knackered old Lola chassis, and when he failed to make the grid he was as depressed as I’d ever seen him. Fortunately the team would eventually give him a new car, and he was soon at the front.
He was well aware that living and working in Japan as a freelance didn’t make much financial sense for me, and he did me a huge favour by asking me to write his press releases, which I then faxed to personal sponsors and his pals in the Austrian media. The inside cover my old address book still contains the list of numbers I used.
He paid me equivalent of around £70 a race. It wasn’t much, but it helped towards my expenses as I travelled around Japan by train and plane. Roland also persuaded other drivers to use me, and soon my client list included Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Salo and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. They all made it to F1 so my PR service must have done something!
Roland had another reason to be a little melancholy on that first Suzuka weekend. In the winter in Monaco he had married the former partner of another driver after a whirlwind courtship. Suddenly he was not only a husband, but also a stepfather, as the lady in question had a son. However, it was all over within months, and by the start of that 1992 season, he was single again.
Around that time I remember we chatted in a restaurant with a British driver who enjoyed a brief spell in Japanese F3. In stark contrast to Roland he was lacking, shall we say, in both the looks and charm departments. When the conversation turned to women he said, ‘I haven’t been laid since Macau.’ ‘I’ve been married and divorced since then!,’ was Roland’s deadpan reply…
His biggest mistake was the commitment he made to the lady in question by throwing away the little black book of phone numbers that he’d spent years collecting. Starting from scratch was not a problem, since Roland always had an eye for the ladies, and he had an amazing success rate. He wasn’t averse to chasing the girlfriends of other drivers, as his brief marriage attested, and that occasionally made life difficult!
One of his unusual goals was to try to enjoy female company in the team motorhome between stints in 24 hour races. I think the last time we discussed it he’d managed the feat twice at Le Mans, and once at the Nurburgring.
At Le Mans in 1990 I was waiting in the pitlane with Roland and a bunch of other drivers before the start of the parade laps. A girl emerged from the crowd. The daughter of a marshal, she turned out to be his conquest of the previous year. ‘Why didn’t you write?,’ she said somewhat sadly. All Roland could do was smile…
At the start of the Simtek era he hooked up with a young lady who would become a major UK TV personality. He sent the team a handwritten fax detailing, in perfect motor racing engineering language, what happened on their first night together – including problems with bottoming out! A debrief of a very different kind.
There are so many stories, such as the time he used his deep Austrian accent to record a Terminator-style ‘I’ll be back’ answer machine message for F3000 rival Jeff Krosnoff, whose own life would be tragically cut short in a Champcar crash.
There was his disappointment when he found out that Jacques Villeneuve knew so little about father Gilles, and his sadness when I told him that Denny Hulme had died at Bathurst. Motor sport history meant a lot to him.
Then there was the time Anthony Reid had a huge accident in front of him during an F3000 test at Fuji. Reid came to a halt without his helmet and with blood streaming down his face. It was actually a superficial injury, but Roland had to take charge of the scene as the marshals had freaked out. Later he made sure I wrote about the shortcomings of safety in a Japanese magazine. He wanted to make a point.
Once we even discussed Austria’s appalling run of racing tragedies – Jochen Rindt, Helmuth Koinigg, Jo Gartner and the sadly forgotten F2 driver, Markus Hottinger. He was not impressed when I mispronounced the latter as ‘Hot,’ instead of something like ‘Hurt,’ with an umlaut. We didn’t know that a couple of years later he would join that sad list.
All these memories have been bouncing around my head for the past 30 years, and he’s never far away. But what I remember most of all is that huge, beaming smile that was his trademark. I consider myself lucky to have known him.
Esteban Ocon says it is too early to judge the upgrade package trialled on his Alpine A524 Formula 1 car at the Chinese GP.
The Enstone team was able to fast track one set of new parts for Ocon’s use in Shanghai, while his team mate Pierre Gasly stayed with the standard car.
Ocon started 13th and had a solid race to 11th in the main event, while Gasly was not far behind him at the flag.
Ocon conceded that it was and the team’s his best race of 2024 thus far, but he remained cautious on the overall impact of the changes.
“I think happier and a bit disappointed at the same time not to be in the points,” he said when asked by this writer about his race.
“We ended up through 2.3 seconds away from the points, which is difficult to swallow, given the job that we’ve done this weekend.
“I think it was fully maximised. I feel like this race has been my best driving race of the whole season, I was very happy with how I managed everything.
“And there was clearly nothing left on the table. So to not have that reward is a little bit sad, but it’s going in the right direction, a small step at a time.
“I think both cars made a good step forward, well inside the top 15. Of course, a lot has happened this race. So difficult to give conclusions exactly on where we would have ended up if everyone was there.
“But we will keep pushing, and hopefully we have one more shot of being close to the points in Miami.”
Ocon stressed that the team would have to conduct a proper analysis of how the upgraded car compared to rivals in the Shanghai event.
“I think we need to dig in exactly on what has been better,” he said. “I think for sure the weight has been an improvement.
“On the rest, I think we need further analysis to exactly see if it has brought a clear performance advantage, because I think both cars were in good shape in that weekend on that side.”
Regarding future prospects he added: “At the moment, we haven’t scored one point this season. So it’s early to say. But it’s our best finish of the year with both cars.
“We need to be careful what we read into it, we need to be careful also, who was there in that race? There’s been many things happening, and lot of contenders that are in the back.
“So that’s the other thing, that we need to be careful on. But on the same time, I feel like it’s been a very strong weekend on the operational side, and on my side driving, and I’ve been happy with that. So we keep going.”
Toto Wolff says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team has addressed the high-speed issues with the W15, and now has to focus on low-speed performance.
The team is currently lying a distant fourth in the World Championship behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell making clear their frustration at the poor form.
Wolff cited a solid performance over the Japanese GP weekend as evidence that the car is at least competitive at tracks with faster corners.
“I think we absolutely achieved that,” said Wolff. “In the high-speed we were super competitive also in Suzuka through the Esses, say and night to what we had before. The drivers were speaking about the best car they had so far in those last two and a half years. But then we really didn’t perform in the low-speed.
“So you’re gaining half a second in the high-speed, you’re losing half a second in the low-speed, and that the equation is back to zero. So that is something which we need to improve.
“We’re beyond the point of understanding, we just need to improve now, that is what it needs to come to. And we have all the facts on the table. We know what we tweaked in order to solve the high-speed, we know where the car was before, to be quick through the slow-speed.
“And now we just need to bolt the car together that does both of them. And as before, we’ve seen those moments of performance. But overall, we’re just not good enough at this stage.”
Wolff suggested that Mercedes was flattered last year by other teams underperforming, indicating that the competition is now consistently stronger.
“I think the cars were difficult all along these last two years,” he said. “The advantage that we had is that McLaren was not racing us for most of the, let’s say, first half of the season. So they weren’t that competitive.
“Ferrari wasn’t the as quick, and dropped the ball on several occasions. And that’s why we were a regular podium contender, and closest to Red Bull.
“Now that these teams have picked up the performance levels, this is a relative game, and suddenly what was good enough for third last year is just good enough for sixth. And that’s why it’s tough.
“The car is as difficult as it has been in the past, tricky for the drivers. When we discussed it George said it was the most tricky qualifying car that he’s had so far. So overall, in a way, same symptoms.”
Adam Cooper F1 