Mercedes boss Toto Wolff refuses to take risks in Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fight | F1 | Sport
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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says it makes “no sense” to risk the development of their 2022 car, and thinks their main rivals Red Bull should be doing the same.
Mercedes have been on the back foot this season, with Red Bull and Max Verstappen out-pacing the seven-time world champions.
Verstappen extended his lead by 18 points with victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, with his team taking a mighty 40 point lead heading into the Austrian Grand Prix.
His driver Lewis Hamilton has since urged his team to consider bringing upgrades to challenge Verstappen and Red Bull, however, Wolff has insisted that the team will stick to their strategy of not putting resources into this year’s car.
“Red Bull brought trucks and vans on Thursday and Friday with new parts, and fair enough, it’s a strategy, and one that proves to be successful as it stands because today they were simply in a league of their own from a car pace [perspective],” said Wolff.
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“It’s not a bad result,” said Wolff after the race, “but what’s tough is that it’s been the first race really in eight years where you are just lacking the pace.
“[This week, we’ll be] scratching our heads and trying to look at the race and see, is there anything we could have done better in terms of set-up direction. I think we found some clues for qualifying… but could we have optimised on race pace, as that’s always a balance. It’s very interesting, I’m looking forward to analyse and see in a week’s time if we can do a better job.”
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