Toto Wolff admits Mercedes planned to wait till autumn to see ‘what happened’ with Max Verstappen at Red Bull

When Lewis Hamilton’s news of leaving Mercedes was announced, Toto Wolff claimed that his team was not in a hurry to choose a driver who would partner George Russell. However, the Austrian billionaire has indirectly considered signing Max Verstappen to the team.

Toto Wolff during an interview in Barcelona, openly discussed his plans for the teams future driver lineup. He revealed that, Mercedes had been in discussions with Carlos Sainz about potentially joining the team. These talks even included the terms and conditions of a possible agreement. However, Wolff decided not to make a final decision until autumn.

We had talks with Carlos Sainz, going so far as to talk about the conditions of a possible agreement. But we came to the decision that we would not confirm our choice until the autumn.

Toto Wolff said, as reported by Formulapassion.it

The Austrian billionaire explained that they wanted to keep their options open for a while. They wanted to see what would happen with Max Verstappen, and also observe the progress of the young driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Wolff said, the team might wait until September, October or even November before making a final decision. Due to this uncertainty, Wolff thought it was best for Sainz to seek other options instead of waiting for Mercedes.

We wanted to leave the question open, both to see what happened with Max, but also to observe how Andrea Kimi Antonelli evolved. And that meant a possible wait until September, October or even November. So with Sainz we decided that it was better for them to act differently.

Toto Wolff explained

Toto Wolff blames Mercedes for losing 3 seconds during Spanish GP pitstop

Toto Wolff despite his optimism, acknowledged the mistakes made by his team in Barcelona. He stated, these errors do not overshadow the progress car has made. The 52-year-old pointed out that, the strategy with George Russell was clearly incorrect. The Silver Arrows made various errors, including losing the three seconds pit stop for Russell. This issue affected Russell’s final position or else he could’ve been third or even second.

If you look at where we finished, obviously the strategy with Russell was wrong. The team was certainly also responsible, including the 3 seconds lost at the pit stop.

Toto Wolff stated

Wolff acknowledged, if these mistakes are excluded, they were only 15 seconds behind the front runners. Out of this delay, 10 seconds were ahead of the first two drivers. This highlighted, Mercedes was actually much closer to the front runners than it might seem. The 52-year-old highlighted there are good reasons to be optimistic about their performance and the improvements they’ve made to the car.

However, if you remove this, of the final 15 seconds of delay, 10 were ahead of the first two, so we are much closer . There are reasons to be optimistic.

Toto Wolff added

Certainly, Toto Wolff reckoned if the mistakes like losing 3 second in pits were avoided, Spanish GP was surely in Mercedes hand. However, Lewis Hamilton capitalized on a good weekend to secure third place while his teammate Russell finished fourth, bringing crucial points for the team.

In case you missed it:

• Christian Horner defends Sergio Perez after Spanish GP despite not fighting for victory
• Lewis Hamilton baffled over Ferrari’s ‘dull weekend’ in Barcelona despite bringing a ‘package of updates’

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