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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that the team will be turning its factories in Brackley and Brixworth upside down in order to gain performance over Ferrari. The two manufacturers are tangled in a close fight for both championships in 2018.
In the constructor's standings, Mercedes lead its Italian rivals by 25 points, while Lewis Hamilton has a 30 point advantage over Sebastian Vettel in the driver's championship. Last time out in Italy, Ferrari secured a one-two finish in an intense qualifying session.
However, the Silver Arrows took the win after Vettel spun around following contact with Hamilton on lap 1 while the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen struggled towards the end of the race on degrading tyres.
Wolff says that an advantage on Saturday means nothing come race day, as Mercedes proved at Monza: “It shows that the racing happens on Sunday,” he said. “I’m very proud of the work the team have done. All the engine guys and the chassis guys from Spa to Monza.
“We have understood the car better, we have understood the tyres better. We’ve added some performance and even if [in qualifying] we didn’t show it because we couldn’t qualify on pole, I felt that we’d done some good work.
“I would have also said that if we hadn’t won. Nevertheless, we didn’t have the quickest car but [in the race] we did. We had a reliable car, we had a car that was good on the tyres. There was no blistering on our tyres, unlike the Ferrari, and brilliant execution from both drivers and the team.”
But despite holding a lead over Ferrari in the championship, Wolff says that there is a lot more to do to ensure that it stays ahead of the Maranello outfit: "We will give it everything in Singapore and all of the remaining races.
“We will turn the whole factories in Brixworth and Brackley upside down to extract performance, and go to Singapore with the aim of doing the best. Whether that is good enough to win the race or not I don’t know yet, but the next seven races are going to be maximum attack.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (2)
Login to replyf1dave
Posts: 782
"turning its factories in Brackley and Brixworth upside down" Seems like a strange strategy.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Is this Wolff hinting that they will move to Australia in order to get some gains? ;)