Toto Wolff is inquisitive about the way the FIA mandate will affect the Belgian GP


Toto Wolff is inquisitive about the way the FIA mandate will affect the Belgian GP

Toto Wolff

Mercedes is yet to accurately describe its soaring form in France and Hungary, where it has attained two double podiums in a row. The shift in form in Budapest, where you first had “the worst Friday of the season” but only managed to secure pole position a day later, is a puzzle.

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said that he has no explanation for that and had requested Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin to note down everything that they did that day after obtaining such positive results to possibly replicate that in the future races.

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“The existing underbody has never been assessed in a wind tunnel”: Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

“We tried things [on Friday] that didn’t work at all, but they gave us a little more orientation for [Saturday]. Honestly, it’s a painful exercise this year,” said the Austrian team principal after the qualifying session of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Despite Mercedes’ elimination of the initially robust “bouncing,” the defending champions of the last eight years’ constructors’ championship appear to be hunting in the twilight when it arrives to taking full advantage of the capabilities of the new “ground effect car.”

“I wouldn’t say now that we’re suddenly in full swing and able to win races, because I don’t think that’s the case. I think we got off to a good start in Budapest on Saturday and [in the race] we got the fruit harvested. But I don’t think we’re close enough to Ferrari and Red Bull to really challenge them. But we’re learning a lot and it’s important to make mistakes sometimes,” added Wolff.

The FIA’s technical mandate will go into effect after the Belgian Grand Prix race weekend to stop the possible usage of flexible underbody and reduce “bouncing,” which could incur the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari effectiveness. “It will be very interesting what we will see in Spa. Let’s see if the difference in vehicle height then makes a difference for the teams that drove so low. But I no longer believe in the ‘silver bullets’, as they say, that we’ll suddenly be three tenths faster than everyone else is, but anyway, that’s going to be interesting,” concluded Wolff.

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