© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff gives his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton’s title chances and says “from a pure paper form, the odds are against us”.
Lewis Hamilton is entering the penultimate race of the season with an eight point deficit to title rival Max Verstappen.
Toto Wolff is realistic when talking about his driver’s title chances.
“We are eight points behind and we just need to bring every single weekend – like we’ve done in Brazil and in Qatar – our A-game,” said the Austrian.
“Only if we do that, we have a chance to win the championship. It’s all very much to play [for], but from a pure paper form, the odds are against us.
“I’m a finance person and therefore probabilities are the basis of how I work, and the probabilities are that the odds are against us.
“It’s very simple, we need to win both races. This is the simplified summary.”
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However, Wolff is adamant that the outcome of both title fights is “in our hands”.
“We never give up, but after Mexico the outlook was grim, again from a sheer probability standpoint.
“It’s much better here, we have it in our hands and that is super exciting and fun, obviously, with all the pressures that come with that.”
Ultimately, taking into account the fact that Red Bull had a faster car for most of the season, Wolff says the team has to be happy that they are in contention at this point.
“[There are] a lot of risks, because winning a race is not only down to the fastest car and fastest driver, but also reliability has a massive influence, and that is just the essence of motor racing.
“But in summary, we have never imagined we would be even playing for the championship at that stage of the season.
“We had two fantastic race weekends, and we just need to have more in order to fight for this championship,” Mercedes’ team boss concluded.
