Mercedes F1 News: Toto Wolff shares EXCITING hints after progress

Toto Wolff angrily walks on wearing sunglasses — Photo: © IMAGO

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Wolff shares EXCITING Mercedes hints after progress

The Silver Arrows showed encouraging pace in Canada

Rhys Thomas

Thursday 13 June 2024 03:00

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has dropped some promising news regarding the team's hopes for the rest of the season.

The Silver Arrows enjoyed their best performance of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix as their cars finished P3 and P4.

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The team looked fast all weekend, with Lewis Hamilton lighting up the time sheets in practice and George Russell taking the Silver Arrows' maiden 2024 pole.

In the race though, mistakes from Russell and a self-confessed poor showing from Hamilton meant a first victory since 2022 slipped out of Mercedes' reach.

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Their efforts to return to winning ways have been continuously hampered by poor correlation between upgrade simulations and their actual effect come race weekends.

Wolff, though, believes that has now changed: “Since Imola we have taken the right steps and put parts on the car that [worked] and that is something we have struggled with in the last couple of years,” he said.

“Directionally, we seem to be heading forward. We have new parts coming in Barcelona so I hope we can continue this positive trajectory."

Mercedes F1 CEO Toto Wolff is hoping his team can keep up their progress

Mercedes have now improved on their season-best points tally in consecutive races, and much of that owes to the upgrades which are steering performance in the right direction.

“We have brought so many new parts that have contributed milliseconds to more performance," Wolff added. "That was a huge effort from the factory. I think the wheel has started to get some real motion now.

“Bit by bit we have added more performance. Another step in Barcelona as we will see it on the stopwatch.

“Hopefully the next few races when there is a track you can overtake, it will be exciting.”

The Spanish Grand Prix's Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not known for its ease of overtaking, though the track layout has been modified in recent years to aid that.

The race in Austria a week later will likely see more overtaking action, but the track has historically been one of Mercedes' weakest, even in their run of eight consecutive constructors' titles from 2014-2021.

Red Bull Lewis Hamilton Mercedes George Russell Toto Wolff Canadian Grand Prix