Hamilton, Mercedes, Styria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

Mercedes "fired up" for Red Bull battle after practice one-two - Wolff

Mercedes hit back with a 1-2 finish in the opening day's practice in Austria

Will Gray

Friday 2 July 2021 17:15

Toto Wolff has promised Mercedes is “fired up” for a world championship battle and was “optimistic” after seeing Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas topping the lap times in practice for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion team has not won in four races, with Red Bull moving ahead thanks to improvements made to its car, but it was Mercedes in the ascendancy on Friday after finishing one-two in the second practice session.

Wolff knows there is more to come from Red Bull, however, and said: “I expect more engine from these guys tomorrow, but we’ve improved in some of the corner sequences, so I think that is encouraging.

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“I think [it was down to] a tiny bit more engine [performance] and then we also got it right. There were some mistakes on the laps before and these ones were pretty good.”

Hamilton commitment shown from simulator efforts

Hamilton flew back to the UK after last Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix to put some time in on the team’s simulator ahead of this weekend’s return, which takes place at the same track as the last.

The team also ran some flow-vis paint on its car during practice, hinting that it is trying hard to work out aerodynamic solutions for its car, having said last weekend that no upgrades would be made for the rest of the year.

Wolff reiterated that the wind tunnel is no longer working on this year’s car said the testing was related to ride height analysis.

He explained: “It’s basically about understanding some of the flow that we can still look at in CFD.

“There is not going to be big parts changes, there is one that is developing that is going to come on the car in Silverstone.”

Asked if it was Hamilton’s choice to test in the simulator he added: “[It was] his idea. He starts to really appreciate the simulator we have. It’s a pleasure to seen he’s keen coming back and it is a bit of the mentality of the team.

“We have to push hard now. [The team] don’t need motivation. They are all fired up. It’s so close. We can see if Valtteri finished second in Monaco which he could have, we would have been right up there in the constructors’ championship.

“Obviously, after Max had the tyre problem in Baku, Lewis could have won and the drivers’ championship could be wide open. That’s why these things can swing from race weekend to race weekend.”