Toto Wolff terms Mercedes as a surprise box after Singapore GP performance which led it to a F1 race win out of nowhere, as he notes on McLaren’s title win as customer.
It didn’t look as good for Mercedes on Friday in F1 Singapore GP, but George Russell turned it around on Saturday with pole and he was backed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in fifth, where the Italian had a chance to be higher up. The Brit started well in the grand prix as well from the lead.
He maintained lead and stretched it as Max Verstappen struggled and the Dutchman eventually kept the McLaren pair behind for Russell to dominate and win F1 Singapore GP. Antonelli lost to Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris initially, but managed to regain the place from Monegasque.
He kept Lewis Hamilton at bay as well to retain fifth. Mercedes chief Wolff termed the Mercedes car as a surprise box after attaining good result in Singapore out of nowhere. He reckons they found sweet spot with the tyres and got into the right aerodynamic window to secure the result.
“You know with these cars, they are just a surprise box,” said Wolff to media when asked about the win. “If you ask McLaren why the last three races haven’t gone at all, they would probably struggle to find answers. In the same way, Max coming back and then lacking performance again, same with the Ferraris oscillating between success and failure.
“It’s just that margins are so small in having the car in the right aerodynamic window, extracting the maximum mechanical grip without killing the tyres and the sweet spot of the Pirellis obviously. That doesn’t always correlate what you see in the virtual world, in the simulations, to what happens on the track,” summed up Wolff, who also talked about McLaren’s title win as its customer team.
The Austrian has long said that if Mercedes can’t win as a team, they would want a customer outfit to win in their place. And McLaren has done for the second time. He knows there’s lot to learn how they extract the maximum, which the German outfit couldn’t, even with the same power unit.
“I think that such internal competition has its advantages,” continued Wolff. “It avoids any discussion whether the power unit is one of the root causes that the chassis isn’t so good. Are we putting too much torque on the tyres? Is the drivability of the engine good or not?
“And seeing a team run away with a championship like McLaren over the last couple of years is just proof that you can beat them. And in that way, you look at the car, I think it’s just very good engineering. They executed it in the right way. Definitely the benchmark over the last two or so years.”
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