Toto Wolff says that the heavily-updated Mercedes W14 ‘isn’t doing anything we don’t like’ after its debut at the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix practice session.
The revised car, which was set to make its first appearance at the cancelled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, features wholesale changes, including to the bodywork and suspension.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had mixed practice days in Monaco, with Hamilton extracting more pace from the evolved car.
The seven-time World Champion finished in P6 in the second practice, whilst Russell struggled in P12.
Mercedes Team Principal offered a tentatively-positive verdict on the updates, and suggested there were no major areas for concern.
“At least the upgraded car is not much worse than the car was before. That’s a good sign for Monaco. For once, the car didn’t do anything we don’t like,” Wolff told Sky Germany.
On the pace difference between the two Mercedes drivers, Wolff explained that Russell had taken longer to find an ideal setup.
“George needed a few laps to get going,” added Wolff.
“The important thing is that he’s improving and in qualifying he’s fully committed, I’m not worried about that.”
“We tried two set-ups in FP2 as well, now we’ve also found something that George likes.”
When commenting on the closeness of the field ahead of qualifying, Wolff said: “In the end it’s all going to be within two, three tenths.”
