Mercedes-Red Bull title will push teams to "breaking point" - Toto Wolff

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Mercedes-Red Bull title will push teams to "breaking point" - Wolff

Mercedes leads the championship into the summer break

Ewan Gale

Saturday 7 August 2021 18:00

Toto Wolff has suggested the battle for the F1 title with Red Bull this season will push both teams to a "breaking point".

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton stole the championship leads from Red Bull and Max Verstappen heading into the summer break after two tough races for the Dutchman in Britain and Hungary.

Red Bull had looked firmly in control of the title standings having taken five race wins on the bounce between Monaco and Austria but two first lap collisions have contributed to Mercedes taking the lead.

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Speaking in a video posted on Mercedes' social media, Wolff said: "The last few months have been really intense.

"We had a good period in early spring. We were able to compete strongly in Portimão and Barcelona and then we had a few races that were really bad, starting with Monaco and then Baku.

"But since then, we have somehow found our grip. We have learned and discovered how our car performs on the new tyres and I think we have returned to a much better place in Silverstone and Hungary.

"The season is very intense but also 2018 and particularly 2019 when we were fighting Ferrari, it was very difficult at times.

"We were really pushing the boundaries and that also means pushing each other almost to breaking point to win the championship."

Mercedes approaching "hunter" tag "with fun"

Despite the championship lead and a front-row lockout last time out in Hungary, Wolff is still adamant that Red Bull is the team to beat.

The Austrian has stressed the importance of his team enjoying each event in order to ensure the maximum potential is achieved.

"The hopes are one thing, the expectations are another thing and the reality can be a different thing too," he added.

"I think we are the hunter, we approach this with fun. There is nothing to lose for us because we have a deficit towards our competitors so we have just to win and continue the journey with great anticipation, enjoy every single race weekend and try to do the best possible job.

"Hopefully, that is enough to really compete for the championship until the very end of the season."

Catching a quick word with Toto before the summer break... 🙏

He talks the first half of the season, hopes and expectations for the rest of the year, off-track activities and more 💪 pic.twitter.com/llTkPeWVUC
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 6, 2021