Toto Wolff admits Mercedes ‘flying in the fog’ despite improvements in Miami

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says his team have been “flying in the fog” since the start of the season due to their difficulties with Formula One’s new car regulations.

The team haven’t performed as most would have expected, only grabbing two podiums this campaign so far with no race wins. Mercedes did see some improvements at the last grand prix in Miami but Wolff admitted they still are a long way off from where they expected to be.

“We have been [struggling] straight from the beginning, flying in the fog a little bit,” explained Wolff, per GP Fans. “And it is clear that there is potential in the car and she is fast but we just don’t understand how to unlock the potential.

“It is a car that is probably super-difficult to drive on the edge, dipping in and out of the performance window, more out than in, and dissecting the data with a scalpel is just a painful process because it takes a long time.”

Mercedes are trying to dissect their problems with the data provided from race weekends but the team boss says it isn’t telling them what their drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, are experiencing.

Wolff added: “We haven’t had this situation before in any of the years that it just didn’t correlate on the screens, what we see, with what the driver feels and that is making it even more difficult.”

Mercedes will next have a chance to better their season on 22 May at the Spanish Grand Prix. Russell is fourth and Hamilton is sixth in the driver standings and the team are third in the constructors.