(Motorsport-Total.com) – “I just thought: Not again,” says Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff, when he saw that both of his drivers had a poor start once again at the Formula 1 race in Japan and lost plenty of positions. Mercedes had secured the first two grid positions in qualifying, but these were gone very quickly on Sunday.
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George Russell had dropped from second on the grid to fourth place, Andrea Kimi Antonelli from pole position even to sixth, because the two Ferraris and McLarens simply had significantly better starts.
“To be honest, I don’t know what else we can do. We are doing our best,” Russell struggles. “I don’t know what was going on with both of us, but yes, it was pretty terrible.”
While it is known that Ferrari has an advantage at the start and regularly shoots forward like a rocket, in Suzuka it wasn’t just the technology that was decisive, as Wolff reveals. “Of course, we’re not exactly giving them the easiest tools. Our starts have generally been on the mediocre side, so we need to improve.”
Antonelli lets the clutch out too quickly
“But in this case, the driver had a massive influence on the car not getting off the line,” says the Austrian on Sky and jokes that he probably has to send his two drivers to driving school again. “One let the clutch snap, and the other didn’t hit it optimally either.”
Antonelli’s time in driving school wasn’t even that long ago – he only got his driver’s license a year ago. But Wolff laughs: “These kids learn on automatic cars in driving school. So we first have to teach them how to let a clutch out slowly, steadily, and not too quickly.”
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Because that was the problem for the Italian. He explains: “So basically, I didn’t place my finger correctly on the clutch. That led to me letting the clutch out faster than I actually should have,” said Antonelli on Sky. As a result, he went beyond the available grip limit and immediately got wheelspin, which hindered his forward momentum.
“After that, I was an easy victim,” he struggles. He’d rather not say what he thought when he was only sixth after the first lap. “But I was extremely angry.”
Antonelli wants to practice during the break
At least the Mercedes drivers were able to repair their poor starts. Russell quickly worked his way back up to second place and still saw himself with good chances of winning before the safety car ruined them and brought Antonelli to the front, who eventually won the race.
Although Mercedes has won all three races so far this season, Japan in particular was quite lucky in this regard, because they have always made life quite difficult for themselves so far through the starts.
But now there is a one-month break until the race in Miami at the beginning of May. “I can practice a few starts there to simply get a better feel for letting the clutch out,” says Antonelli. “That has definitely been a weak point so far this year. And yes, I have to improve there, because you can easily win or lose races with that.”
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