Toto Wolff remaining humble: “The car is still not good enough to fight at the front”
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Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff
Mercedes have done it again: With disappointing qualifying performances, they have shown up once again in the race and impressed everyone with their results. For the first time this season, the two drivers finished in a 2-3, with Lewis Hamilton out in front and George Russell occupying the last spot on the podium.
Right at the start, Lewis Hamilton overtook Sergio Perez, fought it out and held the Mexican driver off. Late on during the race, George Russell also made a brilliant move on Perez on the VSC restart, catching him ‘asleep on the wheel’ (with Perez later posting on Twitter that he had the wrong message from the control tower) Russell was able to hold off Perez.
While Mercedes were certainly helped along the way by Charles Leclerc’s crashing out of the lead, their race pace was certainly impressive, and their result was definitely deserved. Even more so for Lewis Hamilton, whose drink bottle was not working. Yet, the Briton put up an impressive showing.
Also Read: “I want to win in the right way,” Toto Wolff opines on his vision for Mercedes
Toto Wolff praises the drivers: “They did a really good job”
As reported by GPBlog, in a post-race interview with Sky Sports, Toto Wolff insisted that Mercedes were still quite a way behind the ‘leaders’ in terms of pace: “We need to stay humble. Our car is just not good at the moment to fight with the guys in front; I’m always a little bit pessimistic because I need to be.”
He added that Mercedes was still lsix to seven-tenthsl behind: “We’re just lacking six or seven-tenths to the leaders and whilst we have stabilised in the race and Verstappen hadn’t been gaining more ground, he was also looking after his tyres.”
Despite being pessimistic about the pace, Wolff was satisfied with the result overall: “Overall the team effort was great, the drivers did a really good job. George was clever and fast, [and[ Lewis the lion was just always there. We’re doing the maximum at the moment on race day.”
With this result, Mercedes are only 44 points behind Ferrari, while Ferrari are almost double that behind Red Bull. Depending on their performance after the summer break, at the least P2 is a real possibility. They certainly do seem to be on an upward trajectory, while Ferrari, despite having much better pace (and currently the fastest car), cannot keep it together. Mercedes’ pristine reliability is also a huge asset for them, and it will be interesting to see what direction the championship takes from here.
Also Read: “Why not 10?,” Toto Wolff drops huge hint on Lewis Hamilton’s contract extension with Mercedes
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)