Toto Wolff "anger" as he battles through "toughest" period as Mercedes boss

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Wolff "anger" as he battles through "toughest" period as Mercedes boss

Mercedes has registered just seven points from two races

Ian Parkes & Sam Hall

Tuesday 8 June 2021 08:00

Toto Wolff has vowed to turn his "anger" over Mercedes' recent abysmal form into a positive as he seeks to emerge from what he believes is his "toughest" time in his role of team principal.

The past two street races in Monaco and Azerbaijan have resulted in Mercedes' lowest points haul from consecutive grands prix since the end of 2012 prior to Lewis Hamilton's arrival.

After scoring just seven points in Monaco, Baku saw Mercedes register its first failure to score when both cars have finished the race since the 2012 United States GP.

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Asked directly whether the past few weeks were his toughest with Mercedes, Wolff replied: “Yeah, they are the toughest."

He added" In Monaco and Baku we didn't have a car that was competitive, full stop.

"We have underlying issues - we are not getting the car in a happy window for the tyres.

"We know the deficit and we know we have gaps which we simply have to overcome but I have no doubt this team, which is so strong and so angry, is going to turn that anger into positive form and come back."

Wolff overcome with frustration

Mercedes' failure to score in Baku was due to Hamilton accidentally hitting a 'magic' switch that resulted in his brakes locking up at the restart following Max Verstappen's crash.

Perhaps more alarmingly was the lack of race pace from Valtteri Bottas that left him "a sitting duck" and trailing home a lowly 12th, even with the retirements of Hamilton and Verstappen.

“It just feels painful," added Wolff. "You can say we had the win, we had the hand almost close to the trophy because Max didn’t score. The emotion of frustration is just so overwhelming at the moment.

“Everybody has to pick themselves up and then we just need to get into motion to rectify the gaps that we have.

“We have two weeks and there is time to work on that. The championship is wide, wide open. It is very early days so we will make sure that the frustration goes and satisfaction comes.”