A FUMING Toto Wolff has admitted Lewis Hamilton and George Russell “aren’t happy” ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.
The team boss is wrestling with the Mercedes car “bouncing” again as he looks to steer their season back on track.
Toto Wolff has cut a frustrated figure this season as Mercedes have struggled to put their woes behind
Mercedes have fallen off the pace this season and trail Red Bull and Ferrari by some distance already
It had looked like the team had got on top of the issue going into this weekend, but the Mercedes suffered badly with porpoising in qualifying again yesterday.
It left Russell with a disappointing starting grid position of 12th, while Hamilton fought his car up to sixth.
A frustrated Wolff made his feelings known following Miami qualifying, as Mercedes failed to match the pace they had shown in the second practice session (FP2).
He told Sky Sports F1: ” I think we have seen a performance car yesterday in FP2 that was real, we were able to put it in a sweet spot. Today in FP3 we were completely off with the experiments that we did.
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“The car is still bouncing like a kangaroo and the drivers are not happy with it and you can see that is the reason we are off.
He added: “Yes, we definitely have a better handle [on what does and doesn’t work]. Also the slump that we had from yesterday and today helped.”
Expectations had been rising throughout the weekend that Mercedes could challenge Red Bull and Ferrari on pace.
Russell had topped the timing sheets in the second practice, with Hamilton 4th.
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But the encouraging performance did not show itself in qualifying, continuing the eight-time World Champions’ awkward start to the season.
Since the new sweeping rule changes came in, Mercedes have struggled to compete at the top of the field.
The low point was arguably Hamilton’s qualifying in Saudi Arabia when he started as low as 16th.
