© Daimler AG
Toto Wolff thinks Red Bull will be Mercedes’ biggest rival in 2020 and gives his thoughts on the possibility of winning title no. 7.
Mercedes is off to a good start in pre-season testing, topping the timesheets on the first day. Team boss Toto Wolff was asked by Sky Sports F1 to give his thoughts on who he thinks will be Mercedes’ main rival in 2020.
“I think Red Bull because Max can be the youngest world champion if he wins,” said the Austrian.
“I think Red Bull and Helmut [Marko] are going to give this a massive emphasis, it would be a nice thing for them, so I believe Red Bull are going to be the ones concentrating a lot on 2020.”
Wolff also gave his opinion on Mercedes’ fantastic first day of testing.
“We have definitely improved the car in the areas we wanted to.
“So now we just have to do a lot of laps and test all the parts out and see where we can improve it further. Hopefully it will be enough.
“We had a few weaknesses [in 2019]. We looked at all angles within the car, and Valtteri’s comments after this first morning were positive – the car has more grip generally, it feels together and I think as a first indication it’s good.”
And finally, Wolff explained his team’s mindset when it comes to the possibility of winning the unprecedented seventh consecutive constructors’ championship.
“In some weird way, we are beyond the numbers,” said Wolff.
“It is about enjoying what we do and trying to develop. We try to develop the team and push the needle.
“It’s not about the seventh championship, but it’s really doing every weekend as good as we can, because 2021 comes this massive revolution with a cost-cap and totally new technical regulations and we want to be fit for then while being very competitive in 2020.”
