Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes Ferrari are only slightly ahead of them in Bahrain despite there being a substantial gap between the teams’ best times at the end of Friday practice.
Lewis Hamilton’s best time was over six-tenths of a second slower than the quickest of the Ferraris. However Wolff suggested the gap will narrow in tomorrow’s qualifying session.“It looks like maybe Ferrari has a tiny edge on us at the moment,” he told Sky. “But then qualifying can be different. We’re going to squeeze everything we have like a lemon and then be there hopefully in qualifying.”
Ferrari’s poor performance at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix surprised many. Despite their promising pace in testing they finished almost a minute behind the winning Mercedes.
Wolff said Ferrari seemed to have more power now than they did in Australia. “You can see enormous straight-line power from the Ferrari on the straight,” he said. “It’s where they are making all the gains. Definitely a different Ferrari to what we saw in Melbourne.”
Ferrari took the unusual step of doing two qualifying simulation runs during the second practice sessions. Wolff admitted “we were surprised” by that. “It’s an unconventional tactic and it says a little bit about the race.”
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Kingshark (@kingshark)
29th March 2019, 17:04
This means a guaranteed Mercedes pole tomorrow
AliceD (@aliced)
29th March 2019, 17:21
Well Mercedes have been the underdogs the last five years. Only through super human effort and Lewis Hamilton have they been able to beat the much stronger Ferrari all these years. It will truly be a miracle if they can continue winning this year.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th March 2019, 6:12
@aliced well said.
Kurik
29th March 2019, 17:18
Well he knows how much their engines are turned up and we know ferrari hasn’t turned up their engine all the way either so its going to be an interesting battle tomorrow! Looking forward to it….
AliceD (@aliced)
29th March 2019, 17:28
I am sure that Mercedes have very powerful computers and I would not be surprised if they are able to tell exactly how many rpms the Ferrari is running at at any moment in time by just analysing the engine sounds. If you have powerful enough computers they would be able to tell you exactly how much power Merc needs from their engines to win and program the engine to run just enough hp extra at exactly the correct times.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
29th March 2019, 17:27
One of those rare times Toto makes a not unreasonable statement.
EricD (@)
29th March 2019, 17:28
When was the last time Mercedes said they were the favorite?
edvaldo
29th March 2019, 17:51
He should ask for more budget. His team is clearly lacking. One cannot win so many championships on hard work and luck only. It is time for Mercedes to step in and give them what they need to finally be the team to beat for once.
Alain
29th March 2019, 18:07
Toto “At the moment we feel we can just about beat Williams…”