Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has labelled his team`s showing at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as their `worst` of the season to date, following a race where George Russell and Kimi Antonelli failed to challenge for podium positions.
Russell started from third on the grid but lost ground as the race progressed, despite entering Sunday`s event with hopes of competing at the front.
He was delayed by 20 seconds after his pit stop for hard tyres and ultimately finished 27 seconds adrift of race-winner Oscar Piastri.
It was all about the tyres. They were massively overheating. I was pushing hard to stay with Max [Verstappen] at the beginning of the second stint but I knew I wasn`t able to hold on. We fell off a cliff at the end. I was dropping a second per lap in the last 15 laps. We just didn`t have the pace and even if I managed more, I would have been fifth. Coming home in fifth on a bad day, we take it, but we need to improve it quickly.
Wolff expressed confusion regarding Mercedes` significant tyre issues, particularly as competitors like Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren saw their pace improve during the race.
Clearly our worst performance so far from the year. The pace just dropped away with a blistering tyre and overheating tyres, and so far we haven`t got the explanations. When you kind of manage your expectations by being second quickest, and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve, then you see this race panning out like it did, it just adds to the frustration of the situation.
Russell on Tyre Struggles
Despite not adding to his three podium finishes this year, Russell maintained his record of finishing every race this season in the top five. He is currently 26 points behind championship leader Piastri.
Russell found it perplexing that tyre degradation, problematic in Jeddah, wasn`t an issue in China or Bahrain, tracks also known for being tough on tyres.
It`s more about how fast we are going through these corners and for whatever reason we are generating more temperature than our rivals. Suddenly you get to a point and the tyre is like a balloon. We had blistering on the front and rear, then we had no grip. We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive because that`s also an overheating track, but a very different type of overheating to what you experience in Jeddah. We had high hopes for Saudi Arabia but it turned out the opposite, so it`s something we need to understand.
Antonelli`s Race and Learnings
Antonelli finished only seven seconds behind Russell and, conversely, did not suffer from the same acute tyre issues late in the race.
The last 10 to 15 laps were pretty positive. The first stint I need to review because I was struggling with the balance and the front tyre dropped quite easily, so I had to pit earlier compared to the others. Then I had to manage a lot more on the hard, but the last 10 laps I was able to push and it was nice to see the pace was up there.
Antonelli, one of the youngest F1 drivers ever, had two frightening moments when he brushed the wall during the race.
The young Italian appeared fatigued after the race but has consistently stayed relatively close to Russell and established himself as the leading rookie after five races.
The triple-header was a good test physically and mentally, but also really good to learn. Three completely different tracks, situations, so it was good to experience that. I need to work on open tarmac where the degradation is higher. The degradation in Saudi was still there but it was good learnings from Bahrain, and I was happy with how I managed the car in the second stint. Now I have a week off to gather all the information and think about it properly to come back stronger.
Formula 1 heads to Miami for a Sprint weekend on May 2-4.
Marcus Prine