‘You make your own luck’ – Wolff frustrated after claiming Mercedes had the pace for Las Vegas podium
Toto Wolff cut an unusually frustrated figure on Saturday night after the Las Vegas Grand Prix had concluded, despite seeing both his cars come home in the points.
But a lowly seventh and eighth for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively was scant consolation on a day Ferrari closed the gap to the Silver Arrows in the championship.
That fight for second place is now down to just four points heading into the final round of the season, and possibly explains Wolff’s less than cheerful demeanour. That, and the fact he felt his team could have finished much higher up the order.
“Could have been, should have been, should have been,” Wolff concluded after the race. “We looked at the open sky speeds and knew the speeds of the leaders. There [Charles] Leclerc raced the lap times when Lewis was not moving.
“That really boils down to this season. You make your own luck, but today I was more unlucky. “Seventh, eighth – two cars could have made the podium, but they didn’t.”
Hamilton was injured after he got stuck in the first corner and slid into the side of Carlos Sainz’s car. He was then involved in a race crash with Oscar Piastri midway through the race, resulting in a flat rear tire.
The hapless Hamilton felt a flat tire as he crossed the pit lane and had to complete a full lap at low speed before returning to the pits to record the second longest lap on the calendar.
For Russell, he was fined five seconds for a collision with Max Verstappen, which he later admitted was his fault. With the field full, 4th on the line was 8th after penalties.
“This race sums up our season: a fast car that can fight for the podium,” Wolff said. “George, I think it was almost the end of the game when he got the penalty for the Verstappen incident, but I think we gained momentum at the front. Maybe not Max, but maybe behind him. This is.”
Leclerc finished second and Sainz sixth, with Ferrari finishing 16 points ahead of Mercedes, ending the constructors’ battle for second by just four points.
While P2 wasn’t what either team was hoping for at the start of the year, it’s still important to the team’s future financial health as it provides additional cash compensation.
“I think we can make the connection [with Ferrari] … and let’s race,” Wolff said. “It all came down to last weekend. They were very quick and did a good job.
I think we could have done that today, but the results don’t seem to be the case, so let’s compete.
“Honestly, it’s good that P2 is a positive point to end the season, but for me, P2 and P3… I’m not very happy. How do you express it? [This year] is not good for me.’
