Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff not on same page ahead of Mexico GP

Mercedes: What’s gone wrong at the F1 and can they recover?

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Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff appear to have disagreed about the team’s chances of success in the run-up to the Mexican Grand Prix. Mercedes looked more competitive in Austin last weekend after introducing a range of new upgrades to their car.

Hamilton battled Max Verstappen for the win after a Red Bull error saw the Dutchman drop down the field. However, Hamilton has a pessimistic outlook of the Silver Arrows’ chances with just three races remaining.

The Mercedes star stressed Red Bull are still the pacesetters and admitted it was “highly unlikely” the team could beat them during a race weekend in 2022. Speaking after the race last weekend, he said: “Out of true pace, [Red Bull] have been ahead of us all weekend. They were today and they will be the next three races.

“So, unless something drastic happens to any more of them, for example, then it’s highly unlikely that we will have the true pace to be able to compete with them.

“But we’ll give it everything we’ve got. We’re working on making a car that can fight with them. But I think today shows that our teamwork was fantastic. I think, as a team, we operated amazing.” However, Mercedes team principal Wolff claimed the team are “cautiously optimistic” after a more positive showing at the weekend.

The Austrian added he wanted the team to “keep this momentum going” heading into the final three races. After the US GP, Wolff even said Mexico should be a circuit which suited the German manufacturer’s package.

Wolff explained: “The upgrades we brought to Texas delivered a step forward and we were closer to the front than we have been recently.

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“Lewis drove an outstanding race to finish P2 and George scored a good haul of points despite his damaged car. We need to keep this momentum going. We’re cautiously optimistic heading to Mexico but the W13 can be unpredictable from track to track, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin also admitted Mercedes had set a target for Hamilton and George Russell before the end of the season.

He commented: “A lot of hard work has gone into bringing this kit to the car and the pace is getting better with every update so we can take some satisfaction from the fact that every step takes us closer to where we want to be. We’d had tough races in Singapore and Suzuka, so it’s been good to see stronger performance here and we are still hoping to get that first win before the season is out.”

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