Toto Wolff: “Sauber and Haas are not far from us”
The Silver Arrows team had a little delay in Bahrain. Its fifth and ninth places in qualifying caught the attention of the team principal of the team, Toto Wolff.
Mercedes claimed not to be able to be competitive enough for the first Grand Prix of the season. During the winter tests, the W13 appeared much more fragile than their top-ranking rivals, namely Red Bull’s RB18 and Ferrari’s F1-75.
They confirmed their lack of form during the qualifying session this Saturday. With Hamilton securing a modest fifth place and George Russell finishing in ninth, they remain behind for this opening round.
Moreover, the mid-table teams powered by Ferrari could prove to be formidable in 2022, like Alfa Romeo, whose star driver Valtteri Bottas secured sixth place on the starting grid this Saturday, just behind Lewis Hamilton. On the other hand, Kevin Magnussen’s Haas also had a good placement before experiencing a hydraulic issue in Q3.
The team principal and shareholder of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, has spoken on the subject. We are the third force and teams like Sauber and Haas are not far from us, revealed the Austrian. This result imposes a new challenge on us that we were not accustomed to in recent years. We must now adapt and be cunning to come back to the top, he declared.
