Hamilton dealt Mercedes blow amid Wolff's Baku doubts

Lewis Hamilton has been dealt a blow at Mercedes as Toto Wolff raises doubts about their Azerbaijan Grand Prix performance.

The seven-time world champion has signed off his final season with Mercedes with two race victories so far, first at Silverstone and then an inherited win from a disqualified George Russell at Spa.

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Russell also picked up a win at the Austrian GP, after Mercedes remedied their early performance woes in 2024 and found themselves fighting at the front once again.

However, since the summer break they have been usurped by their rivals, with Ferrari and Charles Leclerc emerging victorious from Monza.

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Can Lewis Hamilton win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with Mercedes?

Speaking to Sky Germany after the Italian GP, Wolff remained unsure of whether the team would be competitive in Baku, despite a strong series of results for Hamilton.

“I’m not sure. We were strong in the last three races, we were up there,” the team boss admitted.

“In Spa and the race before that, Budapest, we were really good. And now here [Monza], we’re maybe in the top six, five, or four in terms of speed—somewhere around there.

“But you need to put everything together to win, and that hasn’t come together for us in the last two races."

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When Wolff discussed Mercedes’ flaws in Monza, he bemoaned their tyre strategy particularly as the reason they were slow.

“Yes, we were too slow. We were also too defensive,” Wolff added.

“We were slow at the beginning, partly because we thought we needed to manage the tyres carefully to potentially do a one-stop strategy.

“So we ended up being neither here nor there—unsure whether to stop once or twice—and we lost too much race time, especially at the start.

"Could we have made the podium with those three? I don’t know. But certainly, the two fastest cars finished second and third, and neither won.”

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