Mercedes leaves Abu Dhabi "with a slap on the wrist" - Toto Wolff

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Mercedes leaves Abu Dhabi "with a slap on the wrist" - Wolff

Mercedes secured a double-podium but had no answer for Verstappen's speed

Ewan Gale

Sunday 13 December 2020 17:14

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said the team is leaving Abu Dhabi with "a slap on the wrist" after being comprehensively beaten in the season finale.

Max Verstappen drove his Red Bull to victory with a 16-second advantage over Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes struggled for pace across the final weekend of the season.

It was a disappointing swansong for the W11, which has dominated all season and taken victory in 13 of the 17 races but when asked if he believed the car was the greatest in history, Wolff revealed he had higher hopes for future iterations.

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"W11, we are leaving this race with a slap on the wrist," he said. "It wasn't a good weekend for us.

"A car that has never let us down all year, maybe apart from this last weekend. Whether it will be the greatest car, I don't know. I hope that next year's or after next year's car will be the greatest."

During the race, Bottas held station ahead of the returning Lewis Hamilton but at various stages he looked as though he was struggling for pace compared to his British team-mate.

Wolff, however, insisted he never contemplated switching the order around, saying: "1000 per cent no to ever swapping the car in that condition.It was painful enough that we did it a few years ago and we always want to avoid that unless it is championship critical.

"Valtteri, today, did a very good job. I think him and Lewis were looking after the tyres a lot because it wasn't clear if the hard would last until the end.

"There was more pace for both of them, more pace in both of them and we saw in sector one our car simply wasn't turning around five and six. Also, the last sector wasn't great so no, I never thought about [swapping places]."