For the second part of the season, Toto Wolff has a new goal for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes team manager asserts that in order to be more competitive on Sunday, the team’s qualifying speed needs to be increased.
On race days in 2022, the Silver Arrows seem to be more competitive, but they have trouble keeping up with Ferrari and Red Bull’s one-lap performance. Wolff said the following in a Mercedes debriefing video:
“The start of the season wasn’t really any good, there is no way of describing it. Because if you win the championship in December and four months on you’re not competing with the guys at the front, That is frustrating. Since then we have had a rollercoaster. We’ve been on the podium almost every single race. We were strong on Sundays but never quite there in qualifying and the gap was simply too large. Now it’s about trying to understand what it is and in the second half of the season hopefully increase our qualifying pace and then be able to race for victories.”
In spite of this, Wolff believes that Mercedes’ challenging year may have been for the best as the German company strives for future success. He added: “What we’ve said in the past is the days we lose are the days we learn the most, and I think this is what happened.”
