Toto Wolff identifies fresh Mercedes issue ahead of Saudi Arabia after sluggish F1 start

Mercedes were significantly slower than their biggest rivals on track and in the pitlane in Bahrain

Mercedes struggled with their pit stops in Bahrain and Wolff has demanded improvement (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the team must improve the speed of its pit stops as well as its car if they are to challenge at the front in the 2022 Formula 1 season.

The new campaign began in Bahrain on Sunday and while Lewis Hamilton was able to secure a podium for the team by virtue of finishing in third-place behind Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the pair were way off the pace off the Scuderia and arch rivals Red Bull, whose drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were both forced to retire late in the race after losing engine power.

The W13 car the team has designed for F1’s new era of regulations is slower than Ferrari’s F1-75 ad Red Bull’s RB18, and will require significant development in the coming months if 37-year-old Hamilton is to be able to challenge for a record-breaking eighth world championship.

Ferrari and Red Bull were also faster in another crucial area, though - the pitlane.

In Bahrain all three teams’ two drivers stopped three times each. Sainz’s spent the least time in the pitlane overall, at 1:13:391, while George Russell’s Mercedes pitstops took over three seconds longer at 1:16.796. Hamilton’s were not much faster, and three seconds is a significant time loss in Formula 1.

“There’s still no explanation why we’re not performing there,” Wolff said, as reported by motorsport-total.com. “If we want to be at the front, then that has to work too.”

Pitstops are slower across the board in Formula 1 this year due to the regulation change the series has brought in to try to make racing more exciting. As well returning to ground effect aerodynamic designs for the first time since the 1980s in an effort to allow cars to follow and overtake one another more easily, the Pirelli tyres each car uses have been increased from 13 to 18-inches in width.

This makes the wheels three to four kilograms heavier for mechanics to take off and put on in the pitlane, increasing the time of the stops.

Wolff also explained that Mercedes made a misstep with their strategy in Bahrain. After being put on to hard tyres for his second stint, Hamilton struggled for grip and pace compared to rivals who opted for mediums, meaning he fell away from the leading quartet of Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz and Perez.

“I think with the soft tyre, on pure pace before the tyre degrades, we are almost there. Not where Leclerc is, but with the others, but then degradation is too big,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

“And then obviously we tried to do something different, but putting the hard [tyre] on was putting the hand in the toilet and it was really a second slower every single lap. Lesson learned, so maybe that 35 seconds [gap] is a bit against us.”

The second race of the 2022 Formula 1 season takes place this Sunday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.