Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the odds are against them in the title battle with Red Bull for the driver’s championship.
Mercedes and Red Bull will once again lock horns in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the coming weeks to decide the result of both the driver’s as well as constructor’s championships.
Toto Wolff, a realist by nature, looked back on the Friday sessions in the inaugural Saudi Arabian race weekend and admitted that on paper, the odds are against Mercedes at the moment.
Even with momentum being on Lewis Hamilton’s side for the past couple of races, Max Verstappen’s eight-point lead is still a dangerous factor looming over the Brixworth-based team. The Dutchman can win at Saudi if he extends his lead by 26 points.
When asked about the team’s mindset going into the race weekend in Saudi, Wolff had this to say: “We are eight points behind and we just need to bring every single weekend – like we’ve done in Brazil and in Qatar – our A-game.”
“Only if we do that, we have a chance to win the championship. It’s all very much to play [for], but from a pure paper form, the odds are against us.”
“I’m a finance person and therefore probabilities are the basis of how I work, and the probabilities are that the odds are against us. It’s very simple. We need to win both races. This is the simplified summary.”
Mercedes will not give up
Despite everything, Wolff did show signs of optimism as he stressed on the fact that from here on out, both the championships are in Mercedes’ hands.
Mercedes hold a five-point advantage over rivals Red Bull and even Lewis Hamilton can take away Verstappen’s first title by winning these last two races.
“We never give up, but after Mexico, the outlook was grim, again from a sheer probability standpoint,” he went on to comment. “It’s much better here, we have it in our hands and that is super exciting and fun, obviously, with all the pressures that come with that.”
The risk is undeniable
There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip and Wolff is aware of that. There is a huge amount of risk to their championship chances going into the final two races which Wolff sheds some light on.
“[There are] a lot of risks, because winning a race is not only down to the fastest car and fastest driver, but also reliability has a massive influence, and that is just the essence of motor racing,” said the Austrian.
“But in summary, we have never imagined we would be even playing for the championship at that stage of the season. We had two fantastic race weekends, and we just need to have more in order to fight for this championship.”
