© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Toto Wolff says “either we have to do a better job all together to catch [Red Bull] up, or change the regulations, but I don’t think we should be doing the second one”.
After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Toto Wolff discussed the main issues Mercedes has with its car.
“I think for our car it is more about the ride control than sheer downforce,” the Austrian said.
“We could put a lot of downforce on the car but the car would be too low and too stiff.
“You can see on the [Red Bull] onboard, the car is barely moving on the straights or over bumps, corner balance looks easy and you look at all the other onboards and the cars are tricky.
“So I think generally the ground effect cars are s**t cars, it’s just who has the least s******st is ahead.”
Toto then added that despite Red Bull’s huge advantage over everybody else, he doesn’t think the FIA should step in to ‘stop’ them.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“There is always the risk when you look at these cycles if a team is so far ahead, I think they were 20 seconds ahead of Leclerc and after 40 racing laps, so that’s half a second a lap. But at least we have seen they are pushing.
“Half a second is quite a long way to go. Either we have to do a better job all together to catch them up, or change the regulations, but I don’t think we should be doing the second one.
“So we need to win on merit, and winning on merit means being more clever. Having a steeper development slope than Red Bull. I think we can close it.
“If we get the platform right, it is less about adding ten points of downforce and more about giving the drivers a car that when they turn it into a corner they know the rear doesn’t overtake them.
“That’s the problem. Then we can catch up, but as we did last year it is better not to change the regulations again, as we did on our initiative to lose it again,” Wolff concluded.
