Toto Wolff was left livid believing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the “worst efficiency of the yr to date” for Mercedes.
The Silver Arrows completed fifth (George Russell) and sixth (Andrea Kimi Antonelli) in Jeddah, because it considerably lagged behind rivals McLaren, Crimson Bull and Ferrari.
Wolff was confused as to why Mercedes lacked tempo, particularly when it has had a powerful begin to the 2025 System 1 season getting into the grand prix second within the championship.
“It was clearly our worst efficiency of the yr to date,” the Mercedes boss mentioned. “The tempo simply dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and to date we haven’t acquired a proof.”
The truth that Mercedes was fast in qualifying – Russell began the grand prix in third – made the frustration deeper for Wolff.
He added: “You handle your expectations being the second quickest – and even that isn’t clearly what we’d want to obtain – and then you definately see the race panning out prefer it did. It simply provides to the frustration of the scenario.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
Russell shared Wolff’s frustrations having struggled to handle his Pirelli tyres, telling Sky Sports activities F1 “they have been massively overheating”.
“I used to be pushing exhausting to stick with Max initially of the second stint,” he added, “however I knew I wasn’t going to have the ability to maintain on and we fell off that cliff in the direction of the tip.
“I used to be dropping a second a lap within the final 15 laps, however to be honest, we simply didn’t have the tempo and even when I had managed extra, I believe I nonetheless would have come residence in P5.
“We all know that it’s a little bit of a weak spot of our automotive in the mean time. And coming residence P5 on a nasty day – we’ll take it – however we have to try to enhance it shortly.”
Russell added that the shortage of efficiency wasn’t brought on by hotter temperatures on monitor: “It’s about how briskly we’re going via these corners, and for no matter cause, we have generated extra temperature than our rivals.
“Then all of a sudden you get to some extent the place the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the entrance, blistering on the rear, after which all of a sudden you simply don’t have any grip from the tyre in any respect.”
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This comes after a optimistic begin to the 2025 season for Russell, who claimed three podiums throughout the opening 4 grands prix together with a runner-up end in Bahrain final weekend.
“We have to perceive why Bahrain was so optimistic, as a result of that’s additionally an overheating monitor, however a really completely different sort of overheating to what you expertise right here in Jeddah,” he mentioned.
“We had greater hopes for the race in the present day than we had for Bahrain, and it type of turned out the other.”
Extra reporting by Filip Cleeren and Mark Mann-Bryans
Pictures from Saudi Arabian GP – Race
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Emily Selleck
System 1
Mercedes
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