© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and Andrew Shovlin are preparing for Red Bull to come back with a vengeance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Although Mercedes managed to beat Red Bull in spectacular fashion at the British Grand Prix, and greatly reduce its points deficit to the Austrian team, Toto Wolff says the team doesn’t assume they are favourites going into the Hungarian Grand Prix
“You can’t assume on paper that we are one of the favourites there,” Wolff told RTL.
“But we will of course push where we can to keep the championship open or maybe even get an advantage
“It will certainly be much more difficult for us than at Silverstone but I think we understand [our car] a little bit more.
“I believe that we simply have to remain stable as a team, we have to be aware of our strengths, develop the car further and at the same time remain error-free.
“In our environment in Formula 1, you tend to oscillate a bit between euphoria and despair. If you have a bad run like we had before Silverstone, then people write us off.
“Then we win at Silverstone and suddenly you have momentum again,” concluded the Austrian.
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Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin is equally careful when making predictions.
“[Silverstone] is one of our best tracks,” Shovlin said.
“It would be naive for us to think that we can go [to the Hungaroring] and expect to carry this performance.
“Red Bull are going to be good at a high downforce circuit. Frankly they’re good at every circuit at the moment.
“They’re going to be a bit bruised after the experience [in the British GP], so I’m sure that they’re going to come back really strong.
“They’re a difficult team to beat, but I think we’re a strong team and we’ll be putting everything into it to try and win.”
The Briton went on to say Mercedes’ target is to assume the lead in both championships before the Summer break.
“We’re about halfway through the championship, there’s very fine margins in terms of the points. For us, we’re just going to throw everything at it now to try and get through.
“If we can get ourselves ahead, going into the summer break, that would be fantastic. So that’s probably the target that we’ll set ourselves. But I think it’s a stretch target.
“We’ve shown here that anything’s possible – you’ve just got to keep going and trying to get better, trying to improve,” concluded Shovlin.
