{"id":24116,"date":"2022-07-24T12:34:44","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T12:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/french-gp-qualifying-pace-a-slap-in-the-face-for-mercedes\/"},"modified":"2022-07-24T12:34:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T12:34:44","slug":"french-gp-qualifying-pace-a-slap-in-the-face-for-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/french-gp-qualifying-pace-a-slap-in-the-face-for-mercedes\/","title":{"rendered":"French GP qualifying pace a ‘slap in the face’ for Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Toto Wolff says Mercedes’ pace in qualifying at the French GP was a \u201cslap in the face\u201d at a time when the team thought they were making inroads into the top two.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell arrived at the Paul Ricard circuit thinking finally they would be in the fight for the race win.<\/p>\n

After two race weekends in which Mercedes took notable steps forward, Saturday’s pace \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 came as a shock to the team.<\/p>\n

Hamilton qualified fourth but was 0.9s down on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc while Russell lost out to Lando Norris, the former Williams driver P6 and 1.2s off the pace.<\/p>\n

Wolff was gutted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were slowly but surely working our way back to the front-runners,\u201d he said as per the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were good signs in Silverstone and then we went to Austria, a track where we are usually not competitive at all, but we were close.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we brought quite a nice update package to Paul Ricard. The track is smooth: ‘Off we go, let’s hunt them down.’<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we had no performance. Like, no performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Nico Rosberg thinks there are “question marks” at his former team, after falling further behind Ferrari and Red Bull in qualifying.#FrenchGP<\/a> \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 #F1<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/XuklzN30WN<\/p>\n

\u2014 PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 23, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Mercedes motorsport boss says the worst part is the Brackley team doesn’t understand what led to their massive deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t figure out what went wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe experimented with rear wings, almost the biggest we have \u2013 Lewis described as driving parachute behind him this morning \u2013 to a smaller version which makes us lose too much speed in the corners. Then we experimented with tire temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would have told me we were ending up 1.2secs off, I would have said that’s not possible. It’s a bit of a slap in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton was also perplexed, the Briton disappointed not be involved in the fight for pole position.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said: \u201cWe were hoping to be a lot closer than we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking we might be 0.2secs or something like that. But we’re a second off and I don’t have an answer for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor whatever reason, we seem to be a lot further off this weekend, but the whole pack is. The two top teams are in their own league, really.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n