"It's good when it hurts. When it stings, it sticks," says Toto Wolff after Mercedes' strategy miscue in Zandvoort's difficult wet opening laps; McLaren also left with regrets about not pitting sooner; F1 season continues at Italian GP this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1
Monday 28 August 2023 16:38, UK
Toto Wolff says Mercedes will review their "catastrophic" decisions in the wet and wild opening laps of Sunday's Dutch GP that the team suspect cost them a much stronger result with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hamilton and Russell were among only a handful of drivers not to be pitted in the race's opening two laps as rain started to fall around Zandvoort with increasing but unexpected ferocity.
Pitting on laps three and four respectively, Hamilton and Russell, who had started the race from third, re-emerged on track right towards the back of the field and with big gaps to make up to the front.
Wolff admitted the cars "stayed out catastrophically too long" and said the Brackley outfit will now collectively assess what went wrong and how to avoid similar mistakes in future.
"We will review thoroughly," the Mercedes team principal told Sky Sports F1.
"The situation is never one person or one department, it is the communications between driver, pit wall, strategy, the 'weather frog', and then all of us taking decisions.
"That was absolutely sub-par from all of us, and that includes me."
Wolff, who often says Mercedes emerge stronger from difficult experiences, added: "It's good when it hurts.
"When it stings, it sticks."
A frustrated Mercedes were left to wonder what might have been after both cars subsequently showed good pace in the initial wet, and then drying, conditions to get back in the top eight by the time of the red flag on lap 63 as Mercedes got their next series of calls spot on.
"We got it completely wrong and it is annoying because the car had real pace. From there on, it was just recovering as good as we could," said Wolff.
"I would rather have a fast race car and a mediocre result even if it hurts. We saw at the end on the intermediates, George had Max's pace and Lewis was very strong behind Sainz. He could have been much further ahead.
"But it is bittersweet because the result is just really bad. It could have been good but that doesn't count in this sport."
Hamilton finished hot on Carlos Sainz's tail in sixth, but George Russell came home only 17th after picking up a puncture following contact with McLaren's Lando Norris as they fought over seventh at the late restart.
Mercedes were not the only team ruing the timing of their initial pit stops.
Having qualified on the front row next to Verstappen, Norris also lost early ground after he was not brought in until the third lap. He eventually finished behind Sainz and Hamilton in seventh.
"If I start by looking at the final positions, we got some points, which is a good thing but not as many as we should have got today," said Norris.
"We made some incorrect decisions and on a day like today, that can win or lose you a lot of time.
"We were just on the losing end. We'll review it, we'll make sure we do a better job next time. I think it's impossible to be perfect with this, it's just about limiting your mistakes. We've got some work to do but we're getting there."
Next up for the F1 circus is Monza, the Temple of Speed, which is the last European race of the season. All sessions from the Italian GP will be live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW for just £26 a month for 12 months. Cancel anytime
