It has been a fighting 2018 Formula 1 season so far for reigning champions Mercedes with fierce challenge thrown in from rivals Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.
On a power circuit like in Canada, Mercedes suffered as it only managed to finish second and fifth place courtesy Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton respectively. After careful analysis, Toto Wolff says the team understands why it didn’t perform to expected levels.
Wolff reiterated that 2018 season will continue to be an intense fight with Ferrari and Red Bull in the mix. For now the German manufacturer holds a 17 points advantage over its Italian rivals, but Sebastian Vettel heads Hamilton by one points in drivers’ standings.
“The weekend in Canada didn’t meet our expectations,” said Wolff. “In the past, Montreal was a track where we were fighting for the win, but this year we lacked the performance on Saturday and Sunday.
“We analysed the weekend and understand why we didn’t do better, but that doesn’t change the fact that we left points on the table. This season’s battle is intense and we need to be on top of our game every weekend to win races and to fight for this championship.
“We are facing an exciting challenge this year and we will give it everything. This team has shown in the past that it is capable of overcoming obstacles and we are working hard to overcome this one as well,” he explained.
Mercedes were held back since it were forced to run the older engine which had already seen six races. Even though the team ran it to its max power, but upgrades from Ferrari and Renault helped the other teams slightly.
Despite the older power units, Mercedes did put on a good fight, especially showcasing its reliability with the customer teams Force India and Williams also doing well on engine side. It is expected though to have the fresh unit for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.
It is also the first race in the triple-header, followed by Austria and Britain with Germany and Hungary making it five races in six weekends – which includes an in-season test as well. “France should be an interesting race,” he said.
“We don’t often get to race on a track where we have little to no historical data. It makes preparing for the weekend a bit trickier than usual, but that element of the unknown also adds to the challenge.
“The French Grand Prix marks the first race of the triple header, which will test all F1 teams to their limits, but also offers the chance to score a lot of points over the course of three weeks – which is precisely what we’re setting out to do.”
