Wolff admits "there are not many positives" to take from Spa weekend
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has admitted that "there are not many positives" to take from the Belgian Grand Prix after the Brackley-based outfit collected only a total of twelve points at Spa-Francorchamps.
Mercedes endured a tough weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. George Russell endured an early exit in sprint qualifying, and was unable to make any real progress, ending the 100km dash pointless.
The Briton then went on to qualify in a distant sixth place on Saturday before making little progress in the race to finish fifth, more than half a minute down on race winner Oscar Piastri.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a shock SQ1/Q1 exit in the sprint and the standard qualifying session.
Although the Italian looked fairly competitive on the damp surface, he was unable to make huge progress, and a tactical move to pit for a second time backfired, and saw Antonelli wound up outside the points in 16th.
Reflecting on the Brackley-based outfit's tough weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Toto Wolff admitted that "there are not many positives we can take from the weekend here in Spa. Our pace has not been good enough to compete with our usual rivals and that has been frustrating.
"We need to quickly understand why that has been. We also need to ensure we execute the race weekend more cleanly, getting the car in a better place from the first session on track.
"Today, George delivered what was the maximum with the car in P5. It was a race all about damage limitation and he did a good job to secure some points.
"For Kimi, starting from the back, it was always going to be challenging to fight through. In the wetter conditions, his set-up was useful but that hindered him once it transitioned to the dry.
"He attempted something different with the two-stop in the closing stages, but his straight-line deficit held him back," concluded the Austrian.
