"That is one to put in the toilet" - Toto Wolff reviews Mercedes' performance at 2022 F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was unhappy with the car's performance during qualifying for the 2022 F1 Abu Dhabi GP and described it as 'one to put in the toilet'. The Silver Arrows had strong Friday and Saturday free practice runs, but when it came to qualifying, the car lacked single-lap pace and ultimately struggled to keep up with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Wolff said:

“I just heard today is World Toilet Day. I think that’s one to put in the toilet. We didn’t get the job done. I think we went backwards and they (Ferrari and Red Bull) took a little step forward. We went on a high downforce, high drag concept to have a good race car tomorrow and that was just so slow on the straights it didn’t give anything. We have to believe that for tomorrow it’s so much better to have more downforce to protect the tyres. Let’s see.”

During the session, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton complained of issues with the brakes. When questioned about it, Toto Wolff explained:

“We have this old brake split situation that practically every qualifying session, they start the lap and the brake splits means the left is not doing what the right does and that unsettles the car under braking.”

Hamilton will be starting the race in P5. Speaking to the media after the session, the Mercedes driver admitted that the team was expecting this one to be difficult. He said:

“We came here expecting this to be a difficult one for us but we didn’t expect a gap of eight-tenths to pole position. We were losing six-tenths today on the straights to the top cars. I gave it everything, so it’s a bit of a surprising result and just being so far behind Red Bull and Ferrari. Hopefully our race pace tomorrow will be better than our qualifying pace today.”

He added:

“There’s also some bouncing at this track, which adds to our lack of performance and issues with temperature splits on the brakes which we’ve experienced throughout the whole season. The whole team is working hard and they’re doing an incredible job to fix these issues, especially also for next year. I’m looking to tomorrow and the final race of the season!”

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The car setup is biased towards race pace: Mercedes

In his debrief to the media, Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin shared that the team had opted for a setup that was more biased towards the race. He said:

“The decisions we made with the car setup are biased towards race pace, and on a long run everything is running hotter anyway so we’re still hopeful that we can have a race where we are looking forwards not backwards, but a third row start for both cars means that we have our work cut out if we are to challenge at the front.”

The W13's performance during the race is anyone's guess, but a third-row start is sure to throw a spanner in the works.