© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the loss to Red Bull in the Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying is “hard to swallow”.
After dominating in pre-season testing and all of the Bahrain Grand Prix free practice sessions, Red Bull took pole position in dominant fashion. Toto Wolff admits it’s hard to accept that Mercedes has been beaten.
“It’s hard to swallow, although we knew Red Bull would be strong,” the Austrian told Sky Germany.
“The conditions are not in our favour. It’s going to be a very tough, dog-eat-dog fight.”
Wolff admits Mercedes’ current performance gap to Red Bull is not down to a single thing: “It’s not just one area where you fall behind,” he said.
However the Austrian says it’s still unknown if Red Bull is definitely faster than Mercedes overall.
“When you put the fastest laps and even the long runs side by side from both teams, it’s all so close that any amount of fuel you bring can make a big change. We don’t really know.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
Going into more details Wolff pinpointed several areas where Mercedes is lagging behind Red Bull.
“I think we’re losing on the high speed [corners]. We can clearly see there’s a deficit. We’re losing a little bit on the engine side in terms of derate.
“We are not yet in a happy place with our energy recovery, but it’s not one thing we point to where we can say this is the big gap.”
In 2021, Honda’s last year in Formula 1, the Japanese manufacturer went all-out and decided to suppy Red Bull and AlphaTauri with a power unit they were developing for 2022. Wolff praised the new engine.
“Honda has done a great job. They delivered the power unit which is extremely competitive. Look at where AlphaTauri is. And we just have to take it as sportsmen.
“You just have to say when they’ve done a really good job, full stop. There’s just no one-off solution then to recover.
“And I believe that on the derates that you see, it is something that we have to get on top of. That is not easy, but we’ll get there.”
Mercedes’ team boss was asked if he was surprised with the effort Honda put into its new engine, even though it was their final season in Formula 1.
“Am I surprised? No I’m actually not at all surprised. I think Honda is a very proud company and I was convinced that they would give all the power to have a great power unit in the final year as a works team.
“I think they left no stone unturned, and no resource unutilised to finish the job properly.
“So it’s good motivation for us and I’m happy for them,” concluded Wolff
Source: gpblog.com and autosport.com
