Mercedes W15 fears raised as Toto Wolff concedes ‘not many good ones left’

Toto Wolff has admitted there are “not many good” circuits left on the F1 2024 calendar for the Mercedes W15 in light of the team’s post-summer break lull.

And he expects the United States and Brazilian grands prix to be Mercedes ‘ strongest events across the remaining seven races.

Toto Wolff admits few strong circuits left for Mercedes W15 in F1 2024

Having struggled to adapt to the demands of the ground-effect regulations across 2022/23, Mercedes enjoyed their strongest run of results in three of the four races leading into the summer shutdown, triumphing in Austria, Britain and Belgium.

However, the team have struggled since the season resumed at last month’s Dutch Grand Prix with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton restricted to just one podium finish between them across the last three races.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, where both drivers challenged for victory in 2023, Wolff conceded that there are not many favourable tracks left for Mercedes this season.

George Russell vs Lewis Hamilton: F1 2024 head-to-head battle

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

And he likened the team’s situation to that of Ferrari, who have enjoyed a mid-season resurgence of their own over recent weeks with Charles Leclerc taking consecutive pole positions at Monza and Baku.

Wolff told reporters: “I think, where we’ve traditionally been fast is Barcelona, Silverstone, Spa at times.

“Austin was a good one for us [in the past], Brazil was a good one for us. Not so many good ones left. But the Ferrari pattern is rarely the same.

“Whether [or not] they are going for a championship, they have five tracks where they are exceptional and the drivers are exceptional.”

Asked to pinpoint the factors behind Mercedes’ recent frustrations, Wolff pointed to the close competition between the leading teams in F1 2024 and stressed the importance of getting tyres in the optimal window under the current rules.

He explained: “If you look at the qualifying performances that we’ve had, when we were first and second at Silverstone and first with Lewis at Spa, there was much more performance in qualifying and in the race.

“But between those eight cars it can swing that way, because we’re not talking about tonnes of time.

“We’re talking about two, three-tenths in the direction, then you have an outlier like Leclerc in Baku and Monza, where [Ferrari] have always been strong.

“So as a matter of fact, this is about who is getting the balance as good as possible and who is having the tyres in the right window and what kind of aero concept works well at a given track.

“I will be quite curious to see what happens after Singapore. Ferrari was really strong there last year, so I have no doubt that it’s the third [race] in the row where they can race for the win. Red Bull wasn’t last year, we were doing OK.

“It’s four teams now that are very close.”

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