“Almost nothing works there”– Toto Wolff is sceptical over Lewis Hamilton getting over his grid penalty by only overtaking in Turkey.
Lewis Hamilton has to serve a 10-place grid penalty in Turkey after installing a new inter combustion engine (ICE). However, according to Mercedes, it might turn out to be a fatal setback.
Toto Wolff has spoken about the obstacles Mercedes will face in Turkey while clearing the 10-place grid deficit. According to the Mercedes team principal, the overtaking opportunities are so less that nothing will work in Turkey.
“Valtteri [Bottas] certainly has a good chance today and also tomorrow in the race, but Lewis starting from tenth is then of course a completely different matter, because overtaking is also quite difficult,” said Wolff to Sky Germany.
“We saw that yesterday and tried it in the long runs as well and almost nothing works there”, he reveals.
Nothing is going right for Toto Wolff
Mercedes are receiving a series of bad news on Friday. It was discovered that Mercedes had sent their all engines back to Brixworth, including Valtteri Bottas’ engine used in Italy for further investigation, amidst reliability concerns.
And now, the lack of overtaking opportunities reported in Turkey poses a further challenge to their race prospects in Turkey. Therefore, only a brilliant exhibition by Hamilton can save the Silver Arrows from additional adversities.
Hamilton would be focusing on achieving a pole position from qualifying if he intends even to challenge Max Verstappen on Sunday. The only saving grace for Mercedes in Turkey is their dominant pace over other teams, as reflected on Friday.
However, Red Bull managed to outperform Mercedes during the Free Practice 3, so it remains to be seen how the contest will eventually fare out.
