“The loss is spread over the entire lap” – Mercedes boss Toto Wolff concedes Mercedes cannot win against Max Verstappen in the Austrian Grand Prix.
After Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff has conceded the Austrian Grand Prix to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The Dutchman has been in scintillating form this season and will lead the championship comfortably if he wins today.
Wolff believes their pace vis-a-vis Red Bull is not down to a specific part of the track, but “over the entire lap”. With Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas starting P4 and P5, Mercedes would be hoping for a podium as a consolation.
I think Max is in a league of his own, but maybe we can crack the others.
“There is no special place where we lose a lot of time. The loss is spread over the entire lap. The gap to Max is not shocking, but as I said, we lose over the entire lap. It’s not just the tyre, the chassis, the engine, it’s all of it. We see that we have to improve in every respect.”
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— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) July 3, 2021
Max Verstappen eyeing win in front of home fans
The race will also see a large group of orange-clad Dutch fans turning up for Max Verstappen. He considers the management of the C5 soft tyres to be crucial for the race at the Red Bull Ring.
“Of course what we like is to have both cars in the front so we look forward now to try to have a good race and score a lot of good points for the team and hopefully it works out well.
“We have softer compounds of course than last weekend so it will be a bit more difficult to manage those, but it’s the same [problem] for everyone.”
