“It’s not a bad starting position,” Toto Wolff reflects on the 2022 Mexican GP qualifying session and deems that Mercedes weren’t ‘good enough’
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Mercedes' team principal Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff has brilliantly led Mercedes for multiple years now and they have had their ups and downs. Mostly ups with regards to their success in bringing home the Drivers and Constructors championships with their biggest achievement being winning the Constructors championship for 8 consecutive years. He has shown that he is a fierce leader and a strong competitor.
With the 2022 season, things have been sub-optimal for Mercedes as they aren’t the fastest team anymore with Red Bull and Ferrari getting the upper hand over them every weekend. With their innovative ‘no sidepod’ design, they were thought to wipe out the competition. Instead they have been struggling to find pace and haven’t been able to secure a win this season. However after qualifying in Mexico, a win might be in the books for the Brackley based squad.
Even after achieving what was their best qualifying this season with a P2 for George Russell and a P3 for Lewis Hamilton while Max Verstappen emerged on top and put in a stellar lap for Pole Position. Despite this result, Toto Wolff expressed his thoughts on the team’s accomplishment saying that it wasn’t good enough after feeling what could have been a sure-shot pole position. Here is what the Austrian had to say about his team’s performance.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff thinks that the team could have done better in qualifying
Here is what the Mercedes team boss said post qualifying. “We were zero [seconds] to Max before Turn 12 so that could have been pole,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. “But [it] wasn’t good enough from all of us today. I think after FP3 we had a car that was mega [then] track conditions changed a bit, but it’s not a bad starting position for tomorrow,” he said.
“We were equal before Turn 12 but they (Red Bull) were really good through the stadium [section] also before, so probably wouldn’t have made it anyway. This is where we are at our best and we’ve brought an update to Austin that functions. So slowly but surely we are creeping back,” said the Austrian as he analysed his team’s performance at the Mexican GP qualifying.
Looking at the timesheets, you can understand how Toto Wolff must have felt. George Russell missed out
on pole position by 0.304 seconds while the gap between him and his teammate was 0.005 seconds. This is a clear indicator that Mercedes has the pace to win on Sunday in Mexico as long as they keep their cool and prevent or avoid any first lap incidents.
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Varad Joshi
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