“The fact is that we underestimated, so that is our own mistake”– Mercedes reveals where they made mistakes in realizing their potential.
Mercedes faced five straight defeats against Red Bull this summer to gain a massive deficit, but two good results in Silverstone and Hungaroring has brought them back at the front.
Toto Wolff explains that Mercedes didn’t realize their full potential amidst the tweaked aerodynamics rules for 2021. And now, with recent developments, they are back at the top of both championships.
“One immense factor is that the aero regulations that have been changed from 2020 to ’21 hit us much more than Red Bull,” the Austrian said.
“The fact is that we underestimated, so that is our own mistake, the regulatory change. We thought we can compensate for the deficit we had because we had actually quite a big performance advantage last season,” he explained.
“We’ve been struggling a lot with it but slowly but surely we are crawling back, but that is the single biggest factor.”
Red Bull aims to recapture their lead.
During its string of wins, it seemed like Red Bull has the edge over everyone for this year’s championship and may end Mercedes hegemony, but the two recent most defeats have brought them at a significant setback.
However, it was also not a reflection of Red Bull’s incapability against the upgraded Mercedes. Rather, they were victims of two horrific incidents, which spoilt their prospects to seek a sufficient amount of points.
Now, with the next two races set to be in Belgium and the Netherlands, it has a definite target to beat its arch-rivals to regain its lead in the championship.
Now, it remains to be seen who will have a better second half of the season to claim the championship by the end of the year.