27/09/2021
NEWS STORY
Looking at what he expects to be a fight to the finish, Toto Wolff admits that his team will need to take an aggressive approach from here on in.
While the team celebrates Lewis Hamilton's historic win at Sochi, the fact is that Mercedes was hard hit by Max Verstappen's impressive damage limitation exercise on Sunday.
Courtesy of strategic quick-thinking on the pit-wall and a typically brave performance from the Dutchman, the drivers' title is down to 2 points even if Mercedes enjoys a 33 point advantage in the constructors'.
Its strategic ploy in the form of handing Valtteri Bottas a new engine having failed so spectacularly - he recovered to finish fifth but did nothing to impede Verstappen's progress - the only consolation for the German team was Sergio Perez' failure to finish higher up the order also.
With seven races remaining, it is likely that Hamilton will have to take on another engine, thereby incurring his own penalty, and should Red Bull opt to take a leaf out of Mercedes book and issue Perez with a new engine at the same event it is likely the Mexican would make a better job of it than his Finnish rival.
Nonetheless, looking at what he expects to be a fight to the finish, Toto Wolff admits that his team will need to take an aggressive approach from here on in.
"In a way, we're not maximising our points scoring, and the same today," said the Austrian in the moments after Sunday's race.
"Qualifying was all decisive," he continued. "Valtteri going back we knew was difficult, and we ended up with a first and fifth, and that is very good, no doubt about that, and it's Lewis's 100th victory.
"But Max recovered in a spectacular form, and that is not good for the championship," he admitted.
"So, in a nutshell, we just need to continue to be really aggressive in how we approach this season, not be defensive, but just move forward, in order to score these big points. Because neither us nor the others are really good in maximising the points at the moment."
Sochi, like Monza, has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Mercedes in the past, but (15 races into the season) Wolff claims that this year's regulations have changed all that.
"I stopped trying to anticipate whether it's historically a strong race for us," he said, "because everything with the new regulations, everything changes, so has changed so much.
"Definitely, we knew that Monza and Sochi would be coming more towards us, but the reality is we are where we are, and this is the points gap and I doubt that any of the two teams will make massive swings up or down.
"It's just about, really, to continue to do the best possible job."