Toto Wolff reckons the developed simulator of Mercedes has helped Lewis Hamilton realise its use amid a tough F1 fight against Red Bull.
Hamilton is known to not use the simulator or even take a track walk, but in recent times he has done both. While the latter was mostly due to the COVID-19 situation, where F1 visited some of the different tracks which he has driven, the latter is more for the fight.
After several seasons at the forefront, Mercedes’ work has been cut out, thanks to the push from Red Bull. Both the team and Max Verstappen are still leading the F1 standings, with just one race remaining for the first half of the year to complete.
Even before the British GP weekend, Hamilton revealed of using the simulator to prepare for the races. He did so during the race weekend too and Wolff reckons the developed simulator at Mercedes base at Brackley, is helping him realise its potential and use.
Although he is using the simulator now, Hamilton still doesn’t like it, as he prefers the raw feeling of the track. “The simulator wasn’t his most favourite tool in the past,” said Wolff to written media. “But I think we’ve developed it to a level that is quite good and made it best in class, and he’s started to see the benefits of it.
“This fight is so tough that you need to just grab every single marginal gain, and that’s why we’ve progressed together to better understand the car also with the tool of the simulator. With the updates at Silverstone, we halved the deficit in terms of performance and you just need to mobilise everything in your arsenal of weapons and that’s what he’s doing as a driver and we as a team,” summed up Wolff.
Looking ahead to the Hungarian GP, while embroiled in a controversy of British GP, Wolff still sees Red Bull as a big threat along with teams like Ferrari. “Everyone has their own opinion on the events of Silverstone, and it was a very polarising incident,” he said.
“However, the most important thing is that Max is OK. It’s never nice to see a car crashing, particularly at such high speeds and at a corner like that, so we’re glad he emerged from the accident unscathed. For us, it was an encouraging weekend with the pace of the car, the small upgrades we introduced worked well and we scored some big points, so we’re looking to keep that momentum going.
“We know how fine the margins are this season and how the advantage is swaying from one team to the other at each race. Us and Red Bull looked very closely matched at Silverstone and Ferrari were very quick, and now the battle moves onto the next round and a very different track at Hungaroring,” summed up Wolff.
Here’s Red Bull and Mercedes getting summoned
Here’s Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren on future engine
Here’s Mercedes on upgrades