Toto Wolff’s “several races” warning as Mercedes set for another upgrade at Imola

Toto Wolff believes it will take “several races” before Mercedes can implement what they have learned in the opening six races of the 2024 F1 season.

Mercedes have endured a miserable start to the campaign, languishing in fourth-place in the F1 constructors’ championship.

The Brackley-based outfit have yet to finish on the podium this year and look further away from Red Bull than ever before.

The Mercedes W14 continues to be plagued with inconsistencies, with it occasionally showing a decent turn of pace.

Lewis Hamilton was able to run within DRS range of Sergio Perez for the entirety of the final stint of the race following the Safety Car.

Looking ahead to this weekend at Imola, even though Mercedes have “more updates”, Wolff expects that the team won’t enjoy a serious level of improvement just yet.

“We are now one quarter of the way through the season,” he said. “The first six races have not been straightforward, but we have built a clear understanding of where we need to improve and shaped a clear path forward to tackle that.

“It will be several races before we see this bear fruit, but everyone is working hard to bring them as soon as is possible. In the meantime, we will be looking to maximise the package we have.

We are bringing some more updates to Imola and hopefully they push us in the right direction.”

After back-to-back sprint weekends, Imola will revert back to F1’s traditional format of three practice sessions.

Given Mercedes general inconsistency in 2024, Wolff welcomes the return to a normal schedule.

“After two Sprints in a row, we now go back to the more usual weekend format. It affords us more time to refine the set-up, but Imola is still a demanding circuit that challenges both the car and the driver,” he added.

“It has several fast and flowing sections, but some low-speed corners too and a tricky, bumpy surface. It's narrow, which makes overtaking difficult, and has plenty of elevation. All that combines to provide a stern test and one we're looking forward to.”