Toto Wolff paints bleak Mercedes picture: We were in ‘a vicious cycle’

Toto Wolff described Mercedes’ Belgian race as a “vicious cycle” as his drivers once again struggled with bouncing at high speed.

Porpoising was the buzzword of the 2022 season with Mercedes being a particularly big sufferer of the aerodynamic phenomena but even after rule changes to ride height, the Silver Arrows can still be susceptible to the issue this season.

Lewis Hamilton finished P4 in Sunday’s race at Spa while George Russell ended the day sixth but neither driver was able to make ground on the frontrunners.

Toto Wolff says W14 was ‘bouncing literally every straight’

梅赛德斯的背后的主要问题缺乏沟纹e was the car’s tendency to bounce on high-speed straights.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race, Wolff described it as a “vicious cycle” and revealed the car was “bouncing literally every straight.”

“I’ve just seen the data and spoken to the drivers,” Wolff said. “The main limiting factor today and yesterday was the bouncing.

“The car is just bouncing literally every straight. Even Blanchimont was a corner that Lewis had to lift, which is an easy flat normally.

“You’re bouncing on the straight, you overheat the tyres on the braking. So that is a vicious cycle.

“这是我们的主要限制因素ekend and frustrating to check out for the holidays like this.

“But tomorrow and after tomorrow, we’ve got to understand more based on the data.”

Hamilton was again a significant margin behind race winner Max Verstappen but Wolff said that the Dutchman’s performance was an exception with the second Red Bull car closer to the Silver Arrows.

“I think you can even take [Sergio] Perez into the equation, we are racing each other,” the Austrian said.

“We seem to be following similar development routes, but there’s just one car that is faster today. That was one and a half seconds a lap [faster] when he was pushing at the beginning of the race. So we’ve got to get on top of it.

“I think you just need to take Max out of the equation. The second Red Bull is where we are.

“[Without Verstappen] it would be a fantastic season and close racing. But you know, in the sport, the stopwatch never lies.

“There’s just one guy in one car that’s above everything else and we’ve just got to catch up, there’s no choice.”

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