Toto Wolff: The win was ‘in sight’ for Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone
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Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton
Silverstone was a very encouraging weekend for Mercedes. Even though George Russell retired early due to the first-lap incident, the Mercedes W13 showed a very good pace. Lewis Hamilton bagged a second consecutive podium finish, as well as the fastest lap of the race. But it could have been better.
Lewis Hamilton had taken the lead of the race on lap 26, after both Ferraris pit. When Hamilton finally came into the pits on lap 34 – he, unfortunately, had a slow stop of 4.3 seconds. With a faster pit stop, it is entirely plausible that Hamilton would have come out in front of at least Carlos Sainz.
Despite that, Hamilton had fresher tires than both Ferraris, and showed a very good pace, trading the fastest laps with Charles Leclerc and catching Carlos Sainz at a rapid pace. Then the safety car came out on lap 39, and unfortunately for Hamilton, the promise of victory faded away.
Toto Wolff remaining cautious with expectations
Something similar to Silverstone had happened in Barcelona, but perhaps not as drastic. The car had looked much improved from previous outings, but then next round in Monaco, the car looked very, very bad. It did not improve much in Azerbaijan, even though the result did. It seems that a lot of the car’s performance is dependant on the characteristics of the car.
Silverstone and Barcelona are fairly smooth circuits, but Azerbaijan and Monaco were certainly anything but. Canada is somewhere in the middle of this. The next three circuits are likely not as bumpy as Azerbaijan and Monaco, as they are all purpose-built circuits. As reported by F1Briefings, Toto Wolff felt cautiously optimistic about Mercedes’ future endeavors:
“We had some light at the end of the tunnel in Barcelona and then struggled on three street circuits, so I don’t want to talk us up too much or be too pessimistic.”
Bouncing was a major issue for Mercedes in the past three weekends before Silverstone, and Wolff highlighted them: “I’d rather be cautious. We still had our persistent ride issue all three days, which is a key focus for us to tackle, but we showed strong pace…”
“In Austria, there will be a couple of corners which haven’t made our car happy in the past, but it’s a constant learning process for us. This year is going to be a pretty tough one to win, but we just need to get our house in order to be properly on top of the car’s performance.”
Toto Wolff praised Lewis Hamilton and felt that the safety car had stolen the opportunity to fight for victory from him: “Lewis drove a strong race, we had the win right in front of us before the safety car and were chasing the Ferraris down, but then after the safety car, we were never quite in the position to challenge for the front and lost a little momentum.“
Wolff was also glad that Austria and Silverstone are in quick succession, as it gives them another learning opportunity. If Mercedes show pace like in Silverstone, a three-way title fight may well be in the cards, even if Wolff has tempered expectations regarding it.
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)