F1 News: Toto Wolff Identifies Issue - "Clearly A Problem"

Yesterday didn't go to plan for Toto Wolff and his Mercedes team.

The sprint race of the Belgian Grand Prix was a disappointing one for Mercedes, with not only Lewis Hamilton receiving a penalty for hitting Sergio Perez, but the team generally having a poor time during the shootout leading up to the race as the drivers positions suffered from poor communication. Toto Wolff has responded to the issues he's now identified. 

The 7-time champion was leading the fight, with a provisional pole in SQ3, but after a meeting with Russell's W14 that slowed both drivers down on flying laps, their opportunity at a good qualifying position was squashed.

Russell labelled it a "total mess", and Hamilton was outwardly less than happy about the disastrous move, but talking to Toto Wolff after the race, he was visually upset with the team's organisation.

“When you see that he [Hamilton] was leading the pack before that last lap, it is clearly a problem for all of us,” he said according to Motorsport.com.

“It's not that he's missed out on pole or a front row, but it is that the team has missed out on it, and it is all of us together.

“It's really a constant development and learning process. And I think with the badness that happened, I'm sure with what we discussed afterwards we've made a step in correcting that. But we've tripped up a few times now and we just need to up our game.”

Wolff continued, further identifying the problem. 

“I think between the drivers, both of them, and the interaction with the team, we just need to ramp up our game,” he admitted.

“In these situations where it's about crossing the line, in tough conditions, we have just got to have some precision.

“Very quickly you can look very good and very intelligent, and then very bad. To give you an example, if these two didn’t tangle the way they did, Max would have missed the final lap.

“But having said that, it’s not that driver we should be focused on, but ourselves. We had the time to give them both a proper launch.

“And Lewis was on provisional pole the lap before and then ended up P7. So for all of us together, that shouldn't be happening.”

Hamilton was equally as disappointed. 

“I think the communication was a little bit off, and when we did the slow lap, then we were supposed to go again.

“We got to the last corner, and there was like seven cars, and George and I were led to believe that we were running out of time. So that's why George went running up the inside, rather than just take our time and get our gap.”