Toto Wolff: “I think we are getting on top of the bouncing”
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Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff
The Austrian Grand Prix weekend has arrived, and with good news for Mercedes fans. The duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished P3 and P5 respectively in the first (and the only on Friday) practice session, and Toto Wolff also thinks that Mercedes may finally be getting on top of the bouncing problems.
Bouncing has pretty much been a problem for Mercedes all season and has really been their Achilles’ heel. They seemed to (mostly) get on top of it in Barcelona, but then it returned in Monaco, and further worsened in Azerbaijan. Then the new FIA technical directive arrived (which is scheduled to go into effect in France) which will certainly provide the drivers some relief in the future.
While the bouncing was still there in Canada, it did look much improved as compared to Azerbaijan. This is due to the bumpy nature of the Baku Street circuits, while Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is not as bumpy. Silverstone and Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya are fairly smooth circuits, and it was there where Mercedes had their best performances of the season.
Also Read: Toto Wolff: The win was ‘in sight’ for Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone
Toto Wolff: “We have a quick race car.”
The Mercedes W13 has always appeared better in the races this season, much better than in qualifying. While both drivers have an average qualifying position of 7.50, whenever George Russell has finished, he has not finished outside of the top 5, which is a very impressive record, considering that the Mercedes has not been the best or the most comfortable car on the grid.
Toto Wolff was optimistic about the future and said: “It was not bad in terms of the bouncing. I think we have slowly started to get on top of this thing. I wouldn’t know if we go again to Baku, it would probably be similar but we are getting on top of it.”
He added: “We know that we don’t have a quick car over a single lap but we have a quick race car.”
As for the recent increase in the budget cap, Wolff said: “The regulations from what they say is that if the inflation is up or above 3% then you will adjust accordingly, and we had a time lag. So, it’s complicated to explain, but we got 3% above to cover a little bit of the inflation, but not the freight and energy costs.”
The budget cap has been given a 3.1 percent increase to account for the soaring inflation rates. The top teams: Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes had all said that they would likely breach the budget cap this year due the very high inflation rates being experienced in the world.
Also Read: “He is in his own league,” Toto Wolff hails Lewis Hamilton’s masterclass at Silverstone
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)