The team leader Mercedes, This is Wolffsaid that the reason for Lewis Hamilton finish free practice 2 for the Australian GP Formula 1 in 18th place was a “dramatic” tuning change they made.
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The Brackley team did not have the desired start to the Australian GP weekend, speaking to Sky Sports After training, Wolff admitted it had not been a good day in Melbourne for the former champions, who were off the pace during setup tests.
“We were able to nail the configuration, but we weren’t able to unlock the performance,” Wolff said. “We made a pretty drastic change to Lewis’ setup in the second session and it backfired. But that’s why we do these sessions. It was a little better on the other side [com Russell]but we are lacking in performance, but overall it was not a good day.”
In the era of ground-effect cars, the team only managed one victory. Mercedes, which started the new regulations with the zeropod philosophy, abandoned the concept last year. The W15 they designed this year is the first vehicle in their new guideline.
“If I said I wasn’t disappointed, it wouldn’t be true,” said Wolff when asked if he was saddened by Mercedes’ ongoing problems. “We certainly are, because we’re trying a lot of things in all directions. But it seems like we haven’t found that magic wand yet that will take us in the right direction. But we have to keep trying.”
“We’ve seen how this car performs before and I don’t want to go back and say we weren’t good in these settings, because we have everything we need to develop this and we’re going to do it.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
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