Why Lewis Hamilton's record F1 title quest is "far from over" despite zero development plan

Toto Wolff in gesprek met Lewis Hamilton. — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes

Why Hamilton's record F1 title quest is "far from over" despite zero development plan

Hamilton believes it will be "impossible" to catch Red Bull without upgrades

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 29 June 2021 05:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is adamant Lewis Hamilton's quest for a record-breaking eighth F1 title is "far from over" despite Red Bull taking a stranglehold on the championship.

Mercedes and Hamilton are under the kind of pressure they have not experienced before in the turbo-hybrid era following a run of four consecutive race defeats to Red Bull, with Max Verstappen claiming three of those victories.

The picture for the Silver Arrows took on an even gloomier nature post-Styrian Grand Prix when Wolff revealed all development on this year's W12 had stopped due to the team focusing its resources on the all-new 2022 car.

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But asked whether the title race was effectively over this year given Red Bull's clear pace advantage, Wolff delivered a firm explanation as to why that was not the case.

“The championship is not only played with adding aerodynamic parts," insisted Wolff.

"At this stage, even a team like Red Bull who still keep adding parts, need to switch all of the development to next year.

"That means all the exploitation of the car, the set-up work, the tyres and optimisation of how we are running will become a very important part."

Bottas proves his worth to Mercedes

While the focus is on Hamilton and whether he can become F1's most successful driver in F1, in terms of the number of titles, team-mate Valtteri Bottas underlined his credentials to Wolff.

Starting from fifth on the grid following a three-place penalty after his spin in the pit lane during Friday practice, Bottas ended a run of three races without a podium by claiming third, finishing half-a-second ahead of a hard-charging Sergio Perez in his Red Bull.

Wolff is fully expecting Bottas to "be right in the mix at the front" for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

"He drove for me a perfect first stint, managing his tyres whilst being fast," added Wolff.

"He was really in a perfect situation and you could see that without the penalty he would have been in the mix, no doubt about that.

“But having said that, Lewis and Valtteri had the same armoury and that wasn’t good enough to beat Max.”