“We’re not maximising our points scoring”– Mercedes vows to be aggressive against Red Bull to step up their championship contention

“We’re not maximising our points scoring”– Mercedes claims it will be more aggressive against Red Bull in the upcoming races.

Mercedes is widening its gap against Red Bull in the constructors’ championship, but it is still a tight affair in the drivers’ championship, with Lewis Hamilton taking a two-point lead against Max Verstappen in Sochi only.

But Mercedes would want to keep to conquer on both fronts and to achieve that, it has publicly claimed that they would be more aggressive to get maximum points in the remaining races.

“In a way, we’re not maximising our points scoring, and the same today,” Wolff said after the race. “I think quali was all decisive. Valtteri going back [after an engine penalty] we knew was difficult, he added.

“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.”

Centurion 🏆 pic.twitter.com/aMEHflJTQ5

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 27, 2021

“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.”

The historic record was irrelevant after new regulations

Sochi and Monza have been the best circuits for Mercedes for a while. However, Monza didn’t give them an ideal result, and they couldn’t even get their usual 1-2 result in Russia.

But Wolff already anticipated an imperfect result for his team, as the regulations of 2021 meant it is fallacious to trust their “historic record” on both tracks.

“I stopped trying to anticipate whether it’s historically a strong race for us, because everything with the new regulations, everything changes, so has changed so much,” Wolff said.

“We knew that Monza and Sochi would be coming more towards us. And 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.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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