Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes in F1: “The improvement should have been a step forward, but we have taken a step back. We cannot turn the car at low speed and on the straight we have a lot of resistance”

The great disappointment of Saturday in the F1 Bahrain GP which is disputed in Malaysia was mercedes.

The dominating team of the season had not presented any evolution for a long time, specifically, since Canadasomething that drew attention due to the multiple best ones introduced by its rivals, Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull. They arrived in Sepang and everyone expected the stars to take a huge step forward that would distance them even further from their opponents. But the opposite happened.

It is unknown if it is a question of such a different, very damaged and abrasive asphalt, or if the team has not yet been able to find the potential hidden in the new pieces released in Sepang. But for now, instead of improvements, as recognized by the team’s own Team Principal mercedes, Toto Wolff, the ‘improvements’ were ‘worse’.

“It hasn’t gone as we expected. In fact we have taken a step back. The car is not good enough, we lose on the straights and in the curves and with an improvement that should have been a step forward,” commented Toto Wolff clearly and forcefully on ‘DAZN’.

And when former driver Roldán Rodríguez, current reporter for ‘DAZN’, highlighted to Wolff that the improvements introduced focus on improving the performance of the rear area, but that on the track you could see a car with many problems in that area, the Austrian admitted it: “completely”.

“We have seen car behavior that we have not seen throughout the season. We cannot turn the car at low speed and on the straight it seems that we have a lot of resistance. And we’re slower than our rivals, something we haven’t seen all season either.”

Attention, because the data is striking. According to the statistical portal ‘Formula-Timer’, The straight line speed of a Mercedes that crushed everyone in Baku in that sense, was much lower than it should have been. At the point detection point, the star car was the second worst on the grid, ahead only of Aston Martinwho has many power problems with his Honda engine. This could be due to poor resistance to the car’s forward movement, that is to say: the air that hits the car slows it down more than with the previous innovations. That’s what Wolff said after a first analysis. Although the team will have to study it in depth. Or perhaps Toto is simply bluffing.

“Tomorrow is going to be totally different. But I’m not much more optimistic,” he concluded on ‘DAZN’ regarding the race.

If these new features do not work, Mercedes will have to return to the previous specifications and finish the course with the package it introduced in Canada, with which it was still in the lead, although with McLaren and Red Bull nearby depending on the tracks. This, together with a boost from Red Bull with the arrival of its Baku improvements.

In Azerbaijan, Red Bull’s improvement was so great that with Verstappen starting behind due to his engine problems in qualifying, he was able to come back and be second, just two tenths behind Russell’s victory. And in the Sepang classification, Max shone with pole position, without rival, exhibiting the great aerodynamic load of his car, together with a powerful Red Bull-Ford engine.

If Mercedes’ improvement does not work, this opens up a future with big unknowns for 2027. Will Red Bull and McLaren be able to challenge Mercedes in the remaining races and in the creation of the 2027 car? That’s the question. It’s too early to draw conclusions. Maybe it’s just something specific.