Wolff: Mercedes must improve 'interaction' with drivers

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the Brackley squad's pitwall must "ramp up its game" and improve its interaction with its driver following a communication mishap in Saturday's Sprint Shootout.

After setting the fastest time on his first run in SQ3, Lewis Hamilton headed out for his final flyer but found himself right behind teammate George Russell as he crossed the starting line.

The latter made a mistake at La Source which caused him to lose momentum, which in turn hindered Hamilton as the pair barreled down towards Eau Rouge.

As the two Mercedes drivers tripped over each other due to their inadequate track positioning, as managed by the team's strategists, both drivers' laps were compromised.

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"When you see that he [Hamilton] was leading the pack before that last lap, it is clearly a problem for all of us," he said.

“It's not that he's missed out on pole or a front row, but it is that the team has missed out on it, and it is all of us together.

“It's really a constant development and learning process. And I think with the badness that happened, I'm sure with what we discussed afterwards we've made a step in correcting that.

"But we've tripped up a few times now and we just need to up our game."

Russell called the miscommunication "a mess" while Hamilton was left to rue a missed opportunity to fight for a spot on the front row of the Sprint grid.

"I think between the drivers, both of them, and the interaction with the team, we just need to ramp up our game," added Wolff.

"In these situations where it's about crossing the line, in tough conditions, we have just got to have some precision.

"Very quickly you can look very good and very intelligent, and then very bad. To give you an example, if these two didn’t tangle the way they did, Max would have missed the final lap.

"But having said that, it’s not that driver we should be focused on, but ourselves. We had the time to give them both a proper launch.

"And Lewis was on provisional pole the lap before and then ended up P7. So for all of us together, that shouldn't be happening."

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