Toto Wolff said the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the worst race of the year for Mercedes as “the pace just dropped away.”

For just the second time this season, there was not a Mercedes driver on the podium in Jeddah, with the team left scratching their heads, wondering why pace on Saturday did not translate to the race.

Toto Wolff reflects on ‘frustration’ of Saudi Arabian GP

George Russell was one of the drivers in contention for the pole but then found himself dropping down to fourth with Charles Leclerc’s extended first stint gave Ferrari their first podium of the year.

Meanwhile, Russell came home in fifth, with Kimi Antonelli one spot further back, leading Wolff to label it their worst of the year.

“The pace just dropped away with a blistering tyre and overheating tyres,” he said. “And so far, we haven’t got the explanations.”

Those explanations should come once Mercedes has had time to analyze the data, but Wolff was left with added “frustration” that Ferrari seemed to have found some pace.

“Today we saw no land [sic] against Ferrari and Max [Verstappen] also. So that was an additional negative, that when you manage your expectations of being second quickest — and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve — and it panning out like it did, it just adds to the frustration of the situation.”

To make matters worse, Russell seemed to have issues with his tyres late on, but Wolff clarified that it was never critical.

“There was no risk there. There was never any risk. We had a band coming off the tyre, there was no integrity risk,” he said.

Wolff did however take time to praise Antonelli who, while not having his finest race in Jeddah, has made a strong start to his rookie season.

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“[We wanted to] summarise the first six events in five or six five events and see where he stands, I’m really happy. The trajectory is right,” Wolff said.

“There haven’t been any kamikaze movement. He’s been consistently learning over the weekends. He’s been, interestingly, always very fast when it comes to the end of the weekend, and he seems to get on top of the car, how to drive the tyres, and it is 100% on target.

“Now we need to see the other pieces. The European season starts now, soon Miami, he doesn’t know Miami, but then from there, we’re going to have a pretty clear picture of, let’s say, his more natural habitat. He knows it’s going to impact the performance.”

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