© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
After finishing Friday’s second free practice in P1 and P2, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said he expects Red Bull to turn up their engine for Quali.
Mercedes finished Friday’s second free practice in P1 and P2, which Toto Wolff says is down to improvements made to the W12.
However, he doesn’t think Red Bull’s performance will stay the same tomorrow.
“I expect more engine from these guys tomorrow,” said the Austrian.
“But we’ve improved in some of the corner sequences, so I think that is encouraging. I think [it was] a tiny bit more engine [performance] and then we also got it right.
“There were some mistakes on the laps before and these ones were pretty good.”
Mercedes Technical Director James Allison said earlier this week that Lewis Hamilton has been spending more time in the simulator lately, and Wolff explains what the team was doing.
“The wind tunnel doesn’t work anymore on this year’s car. It’s basically understanding some of the flow, that we can still look at it and see but there’s not going to be big parts changes.
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“There’s one that’s still developing that’s going to come onto the car in Silverstone but that has been down the sleeve for a long time.”
The Austrian was then asked if it was Lewis’ choice to do simulator work?
“[It was] his idea. He starts to really appreciate the simulator we have. It’s a pleasure to seen he’s keen coming back and it is a bit of the mentality of the team.
“We have to push hard now. [The team] don’t need motivation. They are all fired up. It’s so close.
“We can see if Valtteri [Bottas] finished second in Monaco which he could have, we would have been right up there in the constructors’ championship.
“Obviously, after Max had the tyre problem in Baku, Lewis could have won and the drivers’ championship could be wide open.
“That’s why these things can swing from race weekend to race weekend,” concluded Mercedes’ team boss.
