After a tough weekend in Miami where Lewis Hamilton failed to emerge from the second quarter, Mercedes is now counting down the clock until a major upgrade at Imola.

But besides the car’s performance being far from what the team had hoped for, Wolff said its various characteristics sparked a competitive struggle for his team.

“I don’t think the car is a good car, not a good car,” he said. “It’s everywhere. It’s the speed, the performance of the car, it’s the lack of understanding (of why) about the car it didn’t deliver. It’s the full spread of the event. I’d say the performance was really bad.”

Hamilton himself said the current car was no match for Red Bull in any area.

Asked where the team lacked speed, Hamilton said: “Everywhere! It’s just, we’re just lacking. For example, if you look at Red Bull, they could use a small rear wing, they’re fast on the straights, It’s also quick through the corners, and for us we had to have a bigger rear wing to get close to them in those corners. So I think we’re mostly lacking rear downforce.”

unpredictability

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14

Photography: Steve Etherington/ motorsport pictures

However, Wolff thinks the worst thing about W14 is that it’s so unpredictable from session to session, often without explanation.

“It’s the lack of understanding of what makes this car such a nasty piece of work,” he added.

Mercedes will unveil major development steps at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, including new side pods and revised front suspension.

The team hopes the tweaks will pick up the pace, but Wolff says more importantly, it should help engineers better control issues with its 2023 Challenger.

“I think what we’re trying to do with the upgrade is create a new baseline where let’s take the question mark out of the equation and say, that’s not a problem because we’ve adopted a different concept.

“That’s what’s happening with the front suspension, we’re looking at a more traditional body solution than ours, which will create a different airflow.

“For me, it’s almost like going back to the good start we had 12 months ago and trying to improve performance.”

Wolfe also echoed Hamilton’s comments on Friday that aside from healing the Dolphins’ team, little progress has been made since last year.

Asked if the team expected a poor performance in Miami, he said: “No, it’s worse than I thought because it’s been 12 months since we were last in Miami and the car was only slightly better.

“Maybe it didn’t bounce on the straights, but that was the only thing that was better than last year. The car wasn’t fast enough and we didn’t understand why it was between one session and the next. That’s unacceptable.”