Toto Wolff has said that the last few weeks have been among his "toughest" as Mercedes team principal after the team failed to score points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The team were unable to capitalise on the retirement of race leader Max Verstappen in Baku after the Dutchman's tyre blew out with five laps to go, with Hamilton locking his brakes at the restart attempting to overtake Sergio Perez and forced into the escape road. That move pushed Hamilton out of the points for the race, while his teammate Valtteri Bottas struggled all weekend and eventually finished in 12th during the grand prix. On the back of a tough race in Monaco where a pit lane error cost Bottas a potential podium, Wolff said that the last few weeks were the toughest he had experienced in his time leading the team. "Yes, they (have been) the toughest," Wolff told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press following the race. "Not having performance in Monaco, Valtteri would have made it solid onto the podium and needing a pitstop of 36 hours is not really a good achievement based on the standards we are setting ourselves, and then a car that was almost in all sessions nowhere. "And to be honest cruising in third and even trying to make it was okay. But it's just not acceptable that we are not getting the car into a performance position after the start or out of the pit stops." Wolff explained that issues getting the cars' tyres up to temperature which have dogged the team all season were a major cause of their issues. "We're losing seconds over seconds to get the car into a happy window where it functions. It just takes too long," he said.
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