Mercedes concede Lewis Hamilton set-up experiments have “massively backfired”

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff says that a dramatic set-up change on Lewis Hamilton’s car “massively backfired” during second practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was only 18th fastest in FP2 and struggled for pace on both qualifying and race simulations. The seven-time world champion also suffered damage to his W15 and complained over the radio that “something’s wrong”.

In contrast, teammate George Russell finished sixth and was also the quicker Mercedes driver in opening practice in Melbourne.

Mercedes team principal Wolff confirmed after FP2 that his side had been conducting set-up “experiments” in a bid to unlock more performance.

“We’ve achieved experiments but we haven’t unlocked performance,” Wolff told Sky.

“I think in the second session we’ve gone through really quite a dramatic set-up change on Lewis and that has massively backfired.

“But this is why we are having those sessions. On the other side it was a bit better but we are lacking performance on a single lap. If he finishes that lap it would have been a bit better.

“But overall it wasn’t a good day.”

Wolff admitted he is frustrated that Mercedes have started the season on the back foot for the third consecutive year since new regulations were introduced in 2022.

“If I would say that I’m not frustrated it would be not the truth, certainly we are,” he added.

“We are trying so much in all directions but we don’t seem to have found that silver bullet yet which helps to get us in the right direction. But we’ve got to keep trying. We’ve seen performance in this car before.

“I don’t want to go back and say we’re just not good in these regulations because we have everything we need in order to get on top of that and we will.”