25 November 2023 , 16:44
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Toto Wolff declared himself "fed up" of underwhelming qualifying results after Lewis Hamilton struggled again at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion warned after Friday practice that reaching Q3 was going to be difficult. And he was proven correct as he managed just 11th on the grid, condemned to that position by team-mate George Russell.
The younger Brit went on to make the most of it by going fourth quickest in Q3. But that was not enough to improve the mood of Mercedes team principal Wolff, who gave the impression he is very happy that the 2023 season will soon be over.
"FP3 was, I would say, dominant. [Lando] Norris could have probably been there, and would have in qualifying by the way," he told Sky Sports. "It just didn't come together. Probably that's what was in the car. Expectations were higher.
"I'm fed up with having explanations on why it didn't go well. We were good in the hot, we weren't in the cold. [On] previous days it has been the other way around. I'm happy this was the last qualifying of the season and we will come with a new car."
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Mercedes were at least put in a stronger position by Russell. And the Brit coughed and spluttered through his post-session interview before declaring his good qualifying result had come despite his illness.
"I've been really ill for the last two weeks and I've been really, really quick, so I don't know if I need to be ill more often or what it is," he joked. "But for the last two weeks I've felt super comfortable in the car. I've had on average about three hours of sleep per night - maybe that's the secret everyone has been missing!
"Mixed feelings right now. We definitely would have taken P4 ahead of the weekend but, after this morning's performance - we were quickest every single lap - we only improved by six-tenths from practice to qualifying.
"Considering it was much colder and we had much less fuel in the car, we didn't make the jump that we should have. That was a little bit disappointing. We've got a fight with Ferrari in the constructors', but we're just going to treat it like any other race.
"I want to fight for the podium, I want to finish the season on a high. With Carlos [Sainz] down in P16 they're in a tricky position but, as I said, we'll treat it like a normal race and I think we'll have good pace over the McLaren and over Charles [Leclerc], so let's see."