Wolff: “I think we can fight for the championship”

A Mercedes fighting with a Red Bull to win a race. No, we are not in 2021 and it wasn’t Lewis Hamilton but George Russell who was battling with Max Verstappen this Sunday. Armed with a W13 (finally) back to its performance and freed from the bottling, the British driver secured his second podium of the season.

His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, also made an impression. Last at the end of the first lap after a puncture caused by contact with Kevin Magnussen, the seven-time world champion did not seem very motivated and even said over the radio that he would have preferred to retire.

But regaining his composure, Hamilton embarked on a crazy comeback up to fifth place. A true satisfaction for Toto Wolff who was delighted with the performances of the W13.

“It looked like a world champion race car that he was driving, and that wouldn’t have been possible in previous races,” Mercedes’ boss is satisfied. “It reminded me of last year and previous years, when the car was truly at its best. It’s very encouraging and shows that we have taken another step forward.”

Thanks to this new beautiful overall result, Mercedes is gaining a few points on Ferrari in the constructors’ standings, and above all, the German team is starting to believe in its chances of joining the fight for the title.

Can we fight for the world championship? I think we can. But we just need to have a car capable of finishing first and second. And I believe we have reasons to believe that we can achieve it.

Mercedes is now only 49 points behind Ferrari and 75 points behind Red Bull. This is a significant gap but can quickly reduce depending on the unpredictable events of the remaining 16 races. The German team has been able to capitalize on the mistakes and troubles of its rivals since the beginning of the season to avoid being too far behind in terms of points.

Especially the W13 appears revitalized, even if other improvements will be necessary before being able to compete for victories on a regular basis, warns Toto Wolff.

We made another big step forward this weekend, and we probably halved the disadvantage compared to the leading drivers. But there is still a long way to go to be in the race.

But that being said, we are third with George and that’s amazing. His driving was incredible, the defense, the positioning. I am so proud and happy. He is a great driver in the making, says the Austrian.

George Russell has had another consistently strong weekend and has now entered the top 5 in the first six races. This consistency has allowed him to reach fourth place in the standings, 36 points behind Max Verstappen. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton is in sixth place and already trails the one who denied him an eighth title a few months ago by 64 points. But the season is still long.