F1 News: Toto Wolff Slams Mercedes W14 As George Russell Comes Under Fire
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has spoken about George Russell's struggles this year, mainly owing to the Mercedes W14 F1 car's unpredictable nature as the team hasn't been able to figure out a concrete solution to the bouncing effect yet.
Last year's championship saw George Russell finish much ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship. However, that caused the team to increase expectations from the British racing driver this year.
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But as Wolff explains, the problematic W14 can cause a driver's confidence to drop, something I fear happened with Russell. Though he is behind Hamilton by just 49 points this year, something seems amiss. Commenting on Russell's woes with the W14 before the summer break, Wolff said:
“These cars are on the knife’s edge.
"You can quickly fall off it and lose the confidence. On the other side, if you’re within that corridor of sweet spot… having said that, that car [W14] has no sweet spot!
"But being more in that zone of understanding what it will do next, I think there’s a big difference and you can quickly be in either one of these situations, and obviously it goes against you."
Mercedes Techincal Director, Mike Elliott, instills his faith in Russell by confidently stating that he'll eventually get the car to do what he wants. He said:
“I think these cars are hard to drive and they’re running close to the ground.
"And it’s tricky to sort of find that right balance through the corner. It’s tricky to do [that] with the stiffness of the cars.
"George is a fantastic driver so I’m sure he’ll get what he needs to get out of the car fairly quickly.”
Recent reports suggested that Mercedes had found the sweet spot for the perfect ride height which could solve most of its problems. However, the solution would be implemented on the W15 car for next year. The present car might receive some of it but not entirely since it requires new parts to be added to the car. However, at least the team knows that they're headed in the right direction and that is a good thing.