Team boss Wolff after Mercedes supporting role: ‘Extremely painful’ | Motorsport

sport">George Russell finished fifth in the race in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, more than 30 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton scored just 1 point for the championship in tenth place.

sport">“It is extremely painful that we are no longer involved in that battle at the front. That has been the case for the past eight years and very nice,” says Wolff. “But we won’t rest until we get back to the front. We are now being taught a lesson in humility and that is not fun at all, but in the end we will come out of this stronger.”

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sport">Mercedes has won the constructors’ championship for the past eight years. During that time, Hamilton won six of his seven individual titles. The team failed to properly transfer the drastic aerodynamic rule changes to the Formula 1 car last winter. Hamilton and Russell suffer from a ‘bouncing’ car that lacks pure speed. “We clearly don’t have the car we want and are short on all kinds of fronts,” Wolff confesses.

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