Mercedes has been struggling to find its dominating pace since pre-season testing, and team principal Toto Wollf said that their objective this weekend is to match Red Bull’s pace.
“With us, testing didn’t go so smoothly,” Wolff said. “We lost quite some time with little gremlins and never found the sweet spot of the car.
“There was a lot of work being done in the last 10 days in between and I think we’ve found the paths forward that make the car more predictable.
“Even if it looks like it was a carry forward car [from 2020 to 2021], I think we probably suffered more with the change of regulations than the cars with the higher rake, and the Red Bull has followed that concept for many years. So it’s maybe more difficult for us to recover some of the lost downforce.
“But so far, what I’ve seen and what I hope is that we can have a really tough fight; it’s what the fans want to see and what we would like to have.
“I think if we are behind, then we just need to catch up and do a good job. If we’re just about on the same pace – which I would consider today maybe as the best possible scenario for us – then we’re up for the fight with another great team,” Wolff concluded on the matter.
