“We could have saved ourselves”
Mercedes fails in “experiment” with Hamilton
03/27/2022, 08:13 am
Lewis Hamilton doesn’t even make it to the end of qualifying in Jeddah, the record world champion fails in Q1. His car is “undriveable,” complains Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. The failed “experiment” in setup could even affect the starting line-up.
After the qualifying debacle of Formula 1 record world champion Lewis Hamilton in Jeddah, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff took his team to court. “The performance we are showing is unacceptable,” said the 50-year-old on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
He’s “not worried,” said Wolff in his media round, “but realistically you can’t turn eight or nine tenths down in one lap in a week.” But he knows “that we can and will film it – because we simply have to.”
Hamilton, 103 times pole setter, failed in the first qualifying section on Saturday for the first time since November 2017. This drove Wolff up the wall. “With Lewis we tried an experiment that caught our eye. We could have saved ourselves that,” he said on Sky. The car had become “undriveable” as a result, Hamilton only finished 16th. The Brit radioed into the pits: “I’m so sorry, boys.” Apparently he was not to blame for the disaster.
“But above all we lack the pace. We’re somewhere in no man’s land. It’s time to wake up,” demanded Wolff, who was at least satisfied with sixth place for George Russell.
Wolff as well as Hamilton indicated that they would make extensive modifications to the setup of the Mercedes with the starting number 44. This would mean that Hamilton from the pit lane in the second race of the season on Sunday (7 p.m. CEST/Sky and im ntv.de live ticker) would have to start.
Series world champion Mercedes was only third behind Ferrari and Red Bull at the start of the season in Bahrain last week. In Sakhir, however, the team benefited from the technical failures of the Red Bulls of world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, with Hamilton finishing third and Russell fourth.