Wolff stumped by Mercedes’ ‘totally off’ Dutch GP weekend

Toto Wolff was left stumped by Mercedes' "totally off" weekend in Zandvoort, insisting the team had plenty of "head scratching" to do in order to uncover why they were so far off the pace.

While Lewis Hamilton’s P8 finish could be attributed to his poor qualifying result and three-place grid penalty that left him starting 14th, George Russell qualified on the second row and ran third in the opening stages after overtaking Oscar Piastri off the line.

But Russell couldn’t hold onto that place as he was undercut by Charles Leclerc, overtaken on track by the recovering Piastri, and then about to be overtaken on merit by Carlos Sainz when Mercedes called him into the pits for a second set of fresh tyres.

That dropped him behind Sergio Perez, and even with fresh rubber, Russell couldn’t close the gap to the Mexican, winding up seventh just ahead of his team mate – who seemed to have better pace as he climbed back up the order.

Russell 'surprised by lack of pace' and feels like it was an 'off weekend'

Throw in the fact that Mercedes had won three of the last four races ahead of the summer break, including an on-track 1-2 in Belgium prior to Russell's post-race disqualification, and the difference in performance in Zandvoort was even harder to fathom.

“That was really a totally off weekend, and very surprising,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 afterwards. “There is a lot we need to look at as you don’t finish first and second three weeks ago, and then seventh and eighth so far off the pace.

“So, there will be lots of head scratching, looking at data and come back stronger in Monza hopefully.”

Hamilton’s recovery drive at least brought a smile to Wolff’s face – although it was a small positive when considered against a backdrop of McLaren’s improvements and Ferrari’s superior race pace.

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 25: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG — Wolff praised Hamilton's recovery drive on Sunday, as he rose from P14 on the grid to eighth at the flag

“When you consider where [Hamilton] was coming from, that was certainly not bad,” Wolff added. “Whether it was the pace that we could have held onto a podium, probably not, I think the car was not good enough today.”

McLaren did win the race with Mercedes power though, and Lando Norris’s margin of victory has shown Ferrari and Mercedes that Red Bull are vulnerable this season.

After congratulating the McLaren team for their “impressive” performance, Wolff left Zandvoort with some fighting talk aimed at Red Bull’s apparent and sudden lack of pace:

“It’s good, for the McLarens, the Ferraris and ourselves, we just have to ramp our game more up and fight them!”