1
Toto Wolff has denied that Mercedes spent much of the 2015 season 'sandbagging' to hide its true performance advantage. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo said recently that amid talk Ferrari now seems poised to mount a title challenge for 2016, he thinks Mercedes is still a long way ahead. "Ferrari caught up a little bit," said Ricciardo, "but I think in general when they (Mercedes) wanted to turn it on they could."
Mercedes boss Wolff, however, said on Thursday: "There were races where we looked after the cars, when it was not necessary to go full blast. But these were the exceptions rather than the rule. In most of the races, we had to show our full potential in order to win, and in Singapore we saw clearly that it wasn't enough," he told Auto Motor und Sport.
And so Wolff says Mercedes will head into next season treating Ferrari in particular as a very real championship threat. "Our philosophy is to be permanently sceptical," he said. "In all areas we have very ambitious development objectives that we want to achieve, but that does not protect us from losing another part of our lead if our competitors do a better job."
The Austrian also admitted that a lot of attention after the season concluded went into working out why Lewis Hamilton's performance suddenly slumped, just as Nico Rosberg rounded out his year with three wins from pole. "We are a bit cleverer (about it)," said Wolff, "but not much. I think a major role is the psychology."
"Lewis has achieved his goal, bagged the title and then relaxed a bit," he said. "Although perhaps only subconsciously. At the same time I don't want to detract from Nico's performance, which was great. It shows we have two drivers who will be driving at peak performance for us next year, which is the key to success even though it caused us a few grey hairs."
Indeed, Wolff's grey hairs prompted him to warn recently that if the growing animosity between the drivers spills into the 'spirit' of the team, Mercedes would have to think about changing the lineup. But he clarified now that Mercedes remains happy with Hamilton alongside Rosberg.
"If we had two Hamiltons, the team would have probably exploded," he smiled. "But two Nicos wouldn't make it easier either. The combination of the two is quite good. It is the ideal situation, even if it makes life hard for us sometimes. But precisely because they are so different, with individual approaches, it helps us to be better," said Wolff. (GMM)
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
190,634 comments on Visa Cash App RB
25 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Daniel Ricciardo
613,586 comments on Mercedes 57 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Mercedes
Replies (1)
Login to replykhasmir
Posts: 893
Kablammo!!! ;)