Lewis Hamilton’s slow F1 pace leaves door open for Mercedes to go back to old style car as new one struggles
MERCEDES chief Toto Wolff has revealed his team could switch back to an older car after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s struggles continued in Miami.
Russell finished fifth and Hamilton sixth in last Sunday’s Grand Prix despite a promising performance in practice.
But the persistent issue of the car bouncing was present once again and there was no obvious sign of improvement despite Mercedes making upgrades to the car prior to Miami.
Wolff was asked about Mercedes’ next steps and whether a return to a previous car concept – one that was revealed in Barcelona testing at the start of the year – could be on the cards.
The German told Sky Sports: “I wouldn’t discount anything. But we need to give all of our people that have produced great race cars in the past the benefit of the doubt and we believe this is the route to go.
“We need to find out how we can make the current car work predictably for the drivers.
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“We are faithful to the current concept.
“We’re not looking at the lady next door if we like it more or not, because it’s still good.
“We need to understand, before we make a decision on another concept – where did this one go wrong? And what is the goodness of the concept and what is the badness of the concept?”
A lot has gone wrong for Mercedes this year with Hamilton identifying several problems with the car – mainly a lack of speed.
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That has translated into results, with Hamilton already trailing championship leader Charles Leclerc by 68 points after just five races.
His best finish of third came in Bahrain but the Brit only secured a podium place due to Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez having to abandon.
Team-mate George Russell has not faired much better with just one podium finish to his name so far.
The driver has performed well in his first season with Mercedes and ranks fourth in the overall standings with 59 points despite the troubles with his car.