Mercedes modified F1 cars to avoid a “massacre” of Austin’s bumps

After concerns from MotoGP riders about the bumps on the track earlier this month, circuit boss Bobby Epstein said before the training session that “bumps are not a problem for the” [F1] Cars”.

But Wolff stated that the team was required to take steps not to “massacre” its cars after they hit the ground during practice at the Circuit of the America.

A similar situation arose at rival Red Bull Racing, where a broken wing was discovered on Max Verstappen’s car.

With the approval of the FIA, the Milton Keynes team was able to reinforce parts of its two cars before qualifying on Saturday.

“The car hit pretty hard and that breaks the car,” said Wolff.

“So we took some mitigating steps so as not to break it or massacre it so hard to survive the race.

“Certainly [it was] a compromise to get faster on the track, but perhaps a necessity to actually get to the finish line. “

In qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton on pole by 0.209 seconds, while his team-mate Valtteri Bottas only finished fourth. The Finn carries a five-place penalty for changing the engine and will start the race on Sunday from ninth place.

Wolff admitted that Mercedes had lost to their main rivals after setting the pace in Friday practice with Bottas, but insisted the team had not yet come to a conclusion as to why.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

“We lost performance from Friday until qualifying, clearly the relative performance,” said Wolff.

“We don’t know where that is yet. And we don’t have the right explanations yet, but we clearly haven’t met our expectations. “

Wolff doesn’t believe, however, that Hamilton’s qualification deficit will necessarily be representative of racing performance and expects fortunes to rise either way as on other occasions this year.

“If you look at the sheer performance, both Red Bulls look very strong and on paper they are probably the cars that are ahead,” he said.

“But we saw many Sundays that took a completely different direction because of the starting scenario or DNF. And that’s why everything goes tomorrow.

“Even if I always say: ‘The qualifying result is the result of the race’, but thank God that is not the case and there is still ground that we can conquer tomorrow.

“And hopefully will bring Valtteri back to the top of the grid.”