Mercedes humble after equalling Ferrari podium record

Sam Hall
Wednesday 10 August 2022 06:00

Toto Wolff has urged his Mercedes team to remain "humble" despite matching Ferrari for podiums across the first phase of the season.

Mercedes struggled for pace in the opening races of the year as the team struggled with porpoising and other bouncing phenomena.

But the Silver Arrows have bounced back strongly, slowly gathering momentum with six consecutive podium appearances ahead of the summer shutdown, including double-podiums in France and Hungary and a maiden pole position for George Russell at the latter.

The results - along with Ferrari's strategic, reliability and driver errors - mean both teams are tied on 11 podiums for the campaign.

But team principal Wolff insisted: "I would rather have more wins and less podiums.

"We are humble but we are striving for race victories rather than seconds and thirds. If they are on merit then it is a good step forward."

Wolff unsure over Ferrari failings

Ferrari dropped the ball yet again at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break with a tactical error - changing to unfancied hard tyres - dropping Charles Leclerc to sixth from a likely win.

Asked of the ever-increasing number of mistakes from the Ferrari pit wall that have often benefitted Mercedes, Wolff added: "I cannot comment because hitting out on a person is never right.

"I don't know what the reasons were, why they decided to drop the medium or not utilise the soft at the start of the race but that cost them the victory. Ferrari was fast but just couldn't materialise."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes