“Don’t Count Your Chickens…”: Toto Wolff Warns Mercedes After Lewis Hamilton’s Strong Start in Las Vegas

Mercedes has registered just one podium finish ever since Lewis Hamilton won in Belgium in July. That is the reason why his top-spot finish in both practice sessions on Friday in Las Vegas came as a surprise. Another positive sign for the team is George Russell’s top-three finish in both sessions. However, Toto Wolff has warned the Silver Arrows against getting their hopes too high.

The team boss recalls earlier examples when the team went through similarly strong performances on the first day. All that only to see a dip in performance on the second day, costing them dearly in qualifying.

“We’ve had a few good Fridays where there wasn’t much grip and the car was sliding around. That’s why it’s difficult to judge. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Wolff told Motorsport-Total.

Lewis leads the way in Friday practice in Vegas George finishes in P3

FP3 and Quali next up tomorrow ➡️ pic.twitter.com/RORgxcm5av

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 22, 2024

Both practice sessions saw almost every driver struggle for grip owing to two factors. Firstly, the low temperatures made it difficult for them to generate optimum heat in the tires. Lastly, the dusty track made it tougher to judge the braking point, sending drivers into the run-off area frequently.

While Hamilton and Russell were the outliers in that aspect, Wolff is once again too cautious to celebrate. In fact, he is wary of track evolution, which would increase the grip between the surface and the tires and prove to be counterproductive for his team.

“If there is more grip tomorrow, then our car will probably be more difficult to drive than the others,” he continued. Giving the reason for the same, he explained W15’s peculiar issue, “what is known as three-wheeling, where one wheel goes up and you lose a lot of lap time.”

“It’s the same when it gets warm. Then we overheat on the rear axle, and we’re not doing that now, with these temperatures,” Wolff added.

Hamilton fails to make sense of his success in Las Vegas

Wolff is not the only one in the Mercedes camp to hold their horses. The man behind the wheel is perplexed by the sudden uptick in performance as well.

“Difficult to know exactly where we are or why we are where we are but really enjoying driving the track and I think we’ll see whether the car is the same tomorrow,” Hamilton said after FP2. The Briton still believes the team has a task cut out for them before turning up for Day two — to find pace in the race trim.

Hamilton topped the charts in FP1 with a gap of less than four-tenths of a second to Russell. Lando Norris was, meanwhile, just under a second behind. The McLaren driver, however, found pace in FP2 and took P2 with just 0.011s separating him from Hamilton.