© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the team just wasn’t “able to switch the tyres on” which led to its worst qualifying this year.
Lewis Hamilton will start the Turkish Grand Prix in P6, while Valtteri Bottas is further back in P9. Toto Wolff says the team needs to learn from this.
“I believe we haven’t lost a pole in wet conditions this year,” said the Austrian.
“But the conditions were different in that it wasn’t only wet, but it was a brand new circuit that was slippery and cold ambient and track temperatures.
“We just weren’t able to switch the tyres on, and you can see that, if you’re just not in the right window, you’re just sliding all over the place, and the consequences are massive gaps between teams and cars.
“I think we have to learn from this. It was very different conditions than we have over the average of the season because of the temperatures, track and air, because of the rain and because of the resurfaced tarmac.
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“But it doesn’t matter, because it is the same for everybody, and today we have been not able to switch the tyres on and find the grip but others were.
“I always say that we learn the most on the days we are beaten, and today will be such a day. I hope in the future we will understand how to switch the tyres on even in polar conditions.”
The trouble started even in FP3 when Mercedes managed to scrape together just seven laps, due to heavy rain.
“We tried at the end and it was just too wet. It completely changed. The only really good conditions we had were at the beginning, and then it got so wet that nearly everyone was in the pits.
“We went out one time to try something so there wasn’t any sense in going out. It was too wet.”
