Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he was surprised they were unable to overtake the McLarens after the Safety Car period in the British Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton appeared well-placed to attack Lando Norris for second place at the restart. Norris had switched to the hard tyre compound while Hamilton was on a set of soft tyres.Their team mates were in a similar situation behind them: Oscar Piastri held fourth place on hard tyres while George Russell behind him was on softs. Wolff admitted he expected his drivers would be able to pass the McLarens and potentially close on Max Verstappen, who won the race.
“To be honest when the Safety Car was deployed I was pretty sure, if not convinced, that we would be eating up the McLarens and finish with a P2 and P3 or maybe even challenge up the road,” said Wolff in response to a question from RaceFans. “So you see just how strong their car was.
Wolff admitted the strength of the McLarens even on harder and, in Piastri’s case, older tyres “came as a surprise.”
Hamilton also thought he had a strong chance to pass Norris. “Knowing what it’s like to be on the hards in the restart at the end with someone on the softs behind, I knew that it would be difficult,” he said.
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The former McLaren driver said he was impressed by the performance of their upgraded MCL60. “I hadn’t, obviously, had any running with the McLaren, so I had no idea how strong they were earlier on in the stint or in the race,” he said. “It wasn’t until that moment that I started to see some of their strengths and them get stronger and stronger over the laps.
“So, difficult. But it was fun for those first few laps. I wish we could have stayed in that close battle for many more laps but it wasn’t meant to be and I look forward to hopefully having some more of those battles in the future.”
Hamilton believes “one hundred percent” that McLaren had a quicker car than Mercedes at Silverstone, “and last week,” he added.
“But this is the first time in a long time and they deserve to have the performance they have. As I said, we’ve got to do a better job. They’ve now done a better job than us.”
However he is encouraged that the new rules F1 has introduced over the last two years has begun to make the competition close. “This is one of the most exciting times I think we’ve seen in the sport where we’re finally started to see the regs pull people closer.
“The other day you’ve seen that the Williams is up there with Albon, you’ve seen the McLarens, now the Astons. So we have a lot of teams getting very, very close, small gaps between qualifying, which is exactly what we need. So I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the year evolve.”
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2023 British Grand Prix
- Norris is “growing” closer to the champion who inspired him to race
- Second supplier part failure ‘a frustrating issue we must solve’ – Alpine
- Albon ‘surprised’ to be quicker than Alonso at end of British GP
- Bottas admits Alfa Romeo ‘were expecting to be better than this’ in 2023
- McLaren now “finding performance quicker” after emulating Red Bull’s design
Edvaldo
9th July 2023, 18:48
Hamilton i don’t think so, but given that Max seemed to have a bit of trouble with those soft tyres, Norris could have had a shot had they put him on softs.
Kotrba
9th July 2023, 18:52
That was a huge gamble from Mclaren. More so that the last year experience showed the difference between hards and softs on the restart. Thought no one would repeat that this year.
But even with softs Norris was not going to challenge Verstappen for the win. He had it covered.
PlosslF1
10th July 2023, 0:44
Lol, Max pulled 2 seconds before the end of the re-start lap.
Craig
10th July 2023, 7:52
Yet didn’t get much further.
Edvaldo
10th July 2023, 14:50
Because Norris was fending off Hamilton on hard tyres.
Did you even watch this race?
Kotrba
9th July 2023, 19:04
Mercedes car was again too draggy. Russel could not pass Leclerc on softer compound and Hamilton could not pass Norris on hards. Don´t know what Toto Wolff expected from its drivers.
There are other aspects in which Mercedes is not amongst top teams, such as pit stops. This time again one rather slow for Russell and overall they loose a lot of time compared to Red Bull or Aston Martin. They are in close fight with those teams and pit stop duels might decide it in some races this year.
Mercedes could be content with the results here, because Ferrari and Aston bagged almost nothing this time, but Ferrari was more than competitive to them and so was clearly Mclaren.
Joe Pineapples
9th July 2023, 19:26
yeah, right.
melanos
9th July 2023, 19:38
Well, Herr Torger Christian Wolff was delusional. Though a real racer could have made it. Drive your car…
A M (@amam)
9th July 2023, 20:14
A real racer? Even Max in his bullet proof rocketship had troubles passing Lando
melanos
9th July 2023, 22:03
But made it, didn’t he?
And for the rocketship… well, in Silverstone the RBR was somewhat above the rest, not that much. A real racer can make up for a few tenths. And the Maccas Fezzas and Mercs were pretty much equal. Sadly the AMR seem to have lost it.
A M (@amam)
10th July 2023, 9:44
My gran would make it in that rocketship. And yes, the RB is a rocketship when one remembers Max was already 10s ahead before the SC
MadMax (@madmax)
9th July 2023, 20:15
I guess your not real racer is the most successful F1 driver of all time? How much more stupid can your comments get?
melanos
9th July 2023, 21:57
2-0
Kribana (@krichelle)
9th July 2023, 19:40
The soft tyres were weird today. Russell made 28 laps on them with decent pace while Hamilton’s dropped off or either he just settled for P3. I thought Hamilton had a shot at Verstappen because he was matching and going faster on some laps at the end of the first stint, even catching Norris. These are the new tyres, and this was quite a weird race. Russell on soft tyres kept up with Leclerc on medium tyres for 28 laps, then Hamilton on the same tyres could not overtake Norris on hards?
SteveP
9th July 2023, 20:04
You’re using the Ferrari as a benchmark, it’s a fairly low bar
MichaelN
9th July 2023, 20:15
Somehow still 4th in the WCC. Many teams are far worse.
A M (@amam)
9th July 2023, 20:16
The RB is still miles ahead. Absolutely dominant.
Mayrton
10th July 2023, 13:21
Just one car. The other is consistently struggling to get a podium.
OOliver
9th July 2023, 20:40
They must think all kinds of strange stuff at Mercedes.
David BR (@david-br)
9th July 2023, 21:51
That was essentially my conclusion too. They’ve clearly been watching some other Formula 1 series since 2022.
DaveW (@dmw)
10th July 2023, 1:04
I think Hamilton would not have backed out on the outside of Luffield against a different driver. Especially knowing the car lacked the top end to make a pass down hangar or Wellington.
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th July 2023, 8:22
@dmw – you could see it on the onboard from Lewis you can’t keep the inside from that position and had to lift. That gives you to think in 2021 same situation other decision….
Boomerang
10th July 2023, 7:54
If they thought they’ll eat up McLaren then that’s more worrying than lack of performance. Sadly enough, that reveals lack of understanding. That’s much worse if they put up so much effort to improve the car. Firstly W14 is not a car that excels on low fuel and secondly track evolved so much towards the end of the race that Lando only had to keep position after the restart until firing up the hards. What he eventually did. They need a proper ‘hammer’ for hammer time. This is more like tapping time.
Free_B
10th July 2023, 19:57
A lot of the comments I’ve read here (clearly Merc/Toto-bashing) suggest that you think ANY F1 team goes into a race weekend with solid unimpeachable knowledge. Dunno what you’re smoking but throw it away! There are a million variables, chief among them is: you don’t know what the other teams have brung!
But here were several other gotchas:
1. Weather:(wind direction, track temp, rain)
2. Tire wear on new formula for this race
3. Brake wear
4. Timing of safety cars.
So yes Merc thought they would have swallowed up the Mclaren’s and they were wrong! Other people were saying that Perez would have run all the way up to the podium: they too were wrong.
This is sport not accounting: the results are unknown.
Boomerang
11th July 2023, 11:47
I agree with you to some extent but there is a way to solve any equation no matter how many variables it has. Today we have more tools to do it than ever.