Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff insists that the latest floor upgrade for the W15 was not the cause of the issues experienced by the drivers in Austin.
George Russell crashed heavily in Q3, while in the race Lewis Hamilton had a rare spin and became stuck in a gravel trap.
Russell started the race from the pitlane with a rebuilt car and the previous floor package and had a solid race to sixth place.
The car had looked fast on Friday with the new parts before losing performance, leaving the team confused by its behaviour.
“I don’t think we have a fundamental issue on the upgrade,” said Wolff. “I think it’s more interaction on aero and on mechanical stuff.
“We’ve got to continue with the upgrade. Makes no sense to not, because there’s a lot of lot of lap time you leave live on the table.
“But on the other side, you need to be very open-minded. I mean, George drove the July upgrade today, because we didn’t have the floor, and that seemed really competitive in the race.
“Having said that, if you’re missing a few tenths in qualifying, that makes a big difference, because it’s just not as good as it should be.”
Wolff cited the pace of the car in sprint qualifying on Friday, although Hamilton wasn’t able to complete his lap.
“It is more that really getting on top of, why do we have a car that on Fridays is by far the quickest before the Colapinto situation?,” he noted.
“It was four-tenths up and the last sector was just trouble, but it would have been quickest. And then on a Saturday, it’s transformed in the sprint race. We had a broken suspension. That’s one explanation. We fixed that in qualifying, and nothing would go any more. And we struggled to have pace.
“Today, an incident [with Hamilton] in the in that corner that came out of nowhere. He was not pushing at all. So where I sit the moment it’s 100% not Lewis’s forward. And that is not to say that I’m protecting him.
“It’s clear it was gusty, there was a slipstream. How does all of that interact? How does Ferrari come from almost written off before the summer, and turns it around that they have a dominant car finishing one-two?”
Wolff insisted that he was always wary that winning would become harder.
“I’m always a half full glass person, and always sceptical,” he said. “And all these years, that was I think a good mindset that we had in the organisation – it’s just never good enough.
“But where we are now, clearly, this inconsistency that we have with ground effect cars since two and a half years is something that we just need to get on top of it. And I don’t think we are far away. It’s just, I think it’s that step away to kind of understand more.
“But it’s not only us. When you see the fluctuations in performances between the McLarens, the Red Bulls and then Ferrari, all directions. There is some commonality and pattern that we can see.”
Wolff is confident that the team can understand and ultimately address its ongoing issues.
“I think that this is a data-driven sport,” he said. “And there will be lots of digging between, why were we fastest on Friday evening? Why not anymore in qualifying the next day? What was the circumstances of that, what do the data say?
“And then today’s performance, lots of data collection. So that’s why it’s not concerning for me. It’s just where we are. We’re back to underdog status. So you’re not back to pre-summer situation.
“It’s not about coming into the weekend and thinking we’re going to win this, but it’s more going into the weekend and thinking at the moment we are fourth team on the road, so how are we turning this around to be third, or second, and managing our expectations for the rest of the year?
“Seeing it very much as a test whilst going into the weekend and pushing as much as we can, if that makes sense.”
