It took just one qualifying session of the 2023 season for Toto Wolff's worst fears about Mercedes' new Formula One car to be confirmed. George Russell's best lap time was 0.632s off Max Verstappen's pole position lap time -- a huge gap as big as the one that it faced after the first qualifying session last year, and one that only got bigger the following day over the 57 laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Worse still, over a single lap in qualifying and during Sunday's race both Mercedes cars were beaten by the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, which features a Mercedes engine, a Mercedes gearbox and Mercedes rear suspension. By the end of the weekend, Wolff conceded his team would only be...
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