Australian GP: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he ‘wants to punch himself in the nose’ after double DNF | F1 News

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted he “needs to punch himself within the nostril” following the group’s massively disappointing begin to the 2024 Formulation 1 season.

The Silver Arrows marketing campaign reached new depths at Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell each retired to depart Mercedes fifth within the constructors’ standings after the primary three races of the season.

Mercedes, who’ve gained only one race since new design laws have been launched in 2022, got here into 2024 optimistic that an overhaul of their automobile would allow them to problem for victories this season.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who’s leaving Mercedes to affix Ferrari on the finish of the season, retired with an engine failure on lap 17 having solely certified eleventh, whereas Russell crashed on the penultimate lap when chasing Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for sixth.

“Robust to take, tremendous powerful,” mentioned Wolff, who led Mercedes to eight successive constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021.

“I might be mendacity if I mentioned at any second I felt optimistic in regards to the state of affairs and optimistic.

“You simply want to beat the destructive ideas and say, ‘we’ll flip this round’. At this time it feels very, very brutal.”

Regardless of the imperfections of final 12 months’s automobile, Mercedes beat Ferrari and McLaren to second within the constructors’ standings behind Pink Bull, however Wolff’s squad now seem to have fallen considerably behind within the race to chase down Max Verstappen.

“We began this season within the perception that this automobile was higher than final 12 months,” he mentioned. “Then you definitely have a look at final 12 months [in Australia] the place Leclerc crashed out and Sainz was fourth on the street, McLaren have been seventeenth, 18th or nineteenth and now they’re 40 seconds forward of us.

“On one facet, I wish to punch myself on the nostril. On the opposite facet, it is a testimony that once you get issues proper, you’ll be able to flip it round fairly rapidly and proceed to imagine.

“In the intervening time, it is a very powerful time.”

‘I have never acquired the selection to depart Mercedes’

Chatting with reporters in Melbourne after the race, Wolff was requested whether or not he has thought of his personal place given Mercedes’ extended struggles.

“As a nook of this enterprise, I must make certain that my contribution is optimistic and artistic,” he mentioned.

“I might be the primary one to say, if somebody has a greater thought, inform me, as a result of I am to show this group round as rapidly as attainable. And I am going to fortunately give my enter and see what that might be or who that could possibly be.

“We now have a physics downside, not a philosophical or organisational downside. We’ve not swallowed a dumb tablet since 2021. It is simply we do not perceive a number of the behaviours of the automobile, that previously we might have all the time understood.

“I look myself within the mirror each single day about every part I do, and if I imagine that I ought to ask the supervisor query or the coach query, I feel it is a truthful query, but it surely’s not what I really feel in the meanwhile that I ought to do.”

Wolff then defined that his state of affairs can’t be talked about just like the supervisor of a soccer group, given he’ll stay tied to Mercedes no matter whether or not or not he stays in his position, on account of his 33 per cent possession stake within the group.

He added: “The massive distinction is it isn’t just like the supervisor query when it comes to, that is my job, I am going to cease the job after which any individual else is doing the job and I am going to go to Chelsea or to Liverpool, or over to Ferrari.

“I have never acquired that selection, which can be unlucky. I am not a contractor or worker that claims, ‘I’ve had sufficient of this’. My hamster wheel retains spinning and I am unable to bounce out.”

Formulation 1’s largest ever season continues with the Japanese Grand Prix, dwell on Sky Sports activities F1 from April 5-7. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime

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