© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
After the Spanish Grand Prix, Toto Wolff says there’s “a long way to go in order to catch Red Bull”, but Mercedes is now sure their “development direction is right”.
Mercedes had a great result at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton finishing in P2 and George Russell in P3.
After the race Toto Wolff commented on his team’s obvious improvement.
“Let’s keep our expectations real, there’s such a long way to go in order to catch Red Bull, and we just need to grind away,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“It’s a good moment to see that the development direction is right. We just need to chip away and as you know from our lap times, we are really good at grinding.
“Once there is a set-up direction and a development direction, we just go for it and we have that advantage in terms of aero time, but we also need to be realistic.
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“Today the temperatures really suited us, it was nice and fresh and not too cold or not too hot, the car was in a mega window.
“We needed the shock at the beginning of the season to understand that [the old concept] is not going forward, and there were much more performance to be gained [by changing the concept].”
Although Max Verstappen crossed the finish line around 24 seconds ahead of Hamilton, Toto says this is not a true reflection of Mercedes’ pace.
“I think it was less, Lewis was cruising at the end, I think it was two or three seconds [he lost], so the gap is probably around 15 seconds.
“But over 66 laps, that is still a lot,” Wolff concluded.
