“It is against the odds for us now”– Toto Wolff on his team’s chances to win the 2021’s championship against Red Bull.
Mercedes are on a backfoot against Red Bull in the current world championship, as they faced defeats in all the five races, something massively rare in the turbo-hybrid era.
Seeing his team’s standings, he has now claimed that his team are against the odds of winning the championship this year, with Red Bull leading with 44 points.
“I think we lost more ground in previous races than we did [in Austria],” said Wolff, determined to focus on the positives from the Red Bull Ring.
“Of course, losing 13 points or 14 points is not great but this is still the long game. It is against the odds for us now and this is clear because they have an overall performance advantage.
“But it is what I said before, all these years I have tried to keep our feet on the ground by not being carried away with performance and now I need to do the opposite.
“We are not going to give up at that stage of the season, we are not going to give up at any time unless it is not mathematically possible anymore to win this championship.
“Therefore, we need to see things optimistically rather than pessimistically like we have done in the past.”
Still room for optimism
Despite being “against the odds”, Wolff believes Red Bull is only a DNF away from helping Mercedes to regain the ground in the championship race.
“Of course, losing every point is a blow and [Hamilton] lost six points compared to finishing second [in Austria] and adding that all up is making the whole momentum going in the wrong direction.
“But this is so far from over. 32 points behind Max, that is a DNF away and he is in the hunt again. If we look at Baku and the potential and the other races just overall, we just need to up our game, make fewer mistakes and continue to understand the car better. Then we still [are] massively in the hunt.”
