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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is convinced that rivals Red Bull will be a major threat to the team during this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Hungaroring has favoured the Red Bull chassis in recent years, with Max Verstappen taking his first pole position at the circuit last year, undergoing a race-long battle for victory against Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, a battle Hamilton would win in the closing laps.
Wolff is sure that the team posed another threat for this weekend, but was also concerned about the usual hot weather in the area, which also has affected the performance of the team's cars in recent years.
“I’m 100% convinced they (Red Bull) will come very strong in Hungary,” Wolff told Formula1.com.
“It’s a track (where) they have shown historically great performance. We have improved there too in the last few years but it’s always a difficult weekend.
“Hot temperatures are still a bit of an Achilles Heel for us and as far as I have seen on our weather forecast, it could be up to 30C on Sunday.
“We need to prepare well, put all the focus on Budapest and hopefully do the best out of it.”
Mercedes losing out to Red Bull in high-downforce corners
While Mercedes took both victories in Austria over the past two weekends and are now 53 points ahead of closest rivals Red Bull, Wolff believes that the team could still struggle in the low-downforce corners at the Hungaroring.
He noted turns three and four as where Red Bull has had the advantage to Mercedes in Austria, giving him the belief that the team will be strong in Hungary, a circuit known for its high downforce corners.
“Where we lost to Red Bull (in Austria) was the slow speed (corners) – particularly Turn 3 and Turn 4 seemed to be our vulnerabilities,” Wolff added.
“Everywhere else, on the straights and in the fast corners, we were quicker.
“So we just need to continue to develop and push and understand the car. Budapest is a properly different ball-game, lots of downforce, lots of slow and medium-speed corners, so we’ll see how it works there.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (6)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Max Verstappen will be a threat... Saying "Red Bull" would include Albon and of course that would be factually incorrect. Albon will be fighting Racing Point and maybe Mclaren.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Seriously? Albon was fighting for the race win when Ham took him out in week 1. Maybe VER would have won if he didn't have a DNF, but Albon was definitely holding his own. Too soon to tell, but it looks like he has what it takes to fight with the Mercs. It looks mostly to me that he needs to work on getting his setup right. Almost half a second a lap behind his teammate looks more like a setup issue to me that a driver issue. I for one would love to see him on the top step or highest box, or whatever they are going to use this year.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
VER is looking good this year. I dare say, before proven wrong, that he finally looks to have matured. In the last race he actually gave room when it was clear he didn't have pace and was going to be passed, where in prior years he would have crashed. Maybe his first DNF made him realize he needs to be more careful with this short season to try to at least finish each race. Albon's got what it takes, but just needs to be more consistent.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Agreevwith the first, I think Max could mount a genuine title challenge now, though RB need to step it up as a whole. And we need to see Albon do more Austria than Styria.
f1ski
Posts: 726
Perhaps MB feels RBR may protest the MB car or some element of it. Id love to see a gps analysis of the relative HP of the different engined cars to figure the HP and torque numbers. My suspicion is that MB is making more use of the MGU thermal on a lap to lap basis.
I don't want to say it but either all the other teams are inept or someone is exploiting rules better. I wouldn't be surprised if ferrari have a secret penalty where they are capped on HP the first handful of races. Sort of a weight penalty
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
BoP by weight isn't implemented in F1, and you cannot penalize a team in that kinda fashion (a fine or dsq would be used instead). Ferrari mostly talk of how draggy their car is, though while that could be the case (they went from a low-drag to a high-drag car, thus baby issues could arise), I think some of it is down to a gentleman's agreement with the FIA regarding what happened last year. Ferrari and the FIA agreed that the stuff Ferrari did last year was either borderline or illegal, so Ferrari told them how it's done and won't do it again in exchange for the FIA not revealing it. Assuming anything illegal happened. Or Ferrari was caught napping altogether.