It seems to have taken just one race for Mercedes to rattle Red Bull. After George Russell almost beat Max Verstappen for the win in Canada, Red Bull have reportedly lodged an unofficial request to the FIA to investigate the Silver Arrows’ new front wing. However, if the latest reports are true, it seems that Toto Wolff has plans for the Spanish GP that may further unnerve Red Bull.
While speaking to the German branch of Motorsport.com, the Austrian said, “At the moment, we seem to be performing better from weekend to weekend and there is something new coming up for Barcelona that should help us. So I hope we can continue this trend”.
Wolff then directly responded to theories that it was the new front wing that helped both Russell and Lewis Hamilton produce a much stronger performance in Montreal. As per the 52-year-old, his side have taken several small steps that have helped them discover more pace.
Hence, Wolff is unwilling to accept theories that just a change in one part of the car can turn their fortunes around so drastically. “Sometimes you bring a clearly visible new part such as a front wing to the circuit. And then the change in performance is linked to this one part,” he explained.
While it seems unclear what helped Mercedes discover such a huge amount of performance, one thing that seems certain is that if they continue performing at such a high level, Red Bull cannot rest easy. And to make matters worse for the Milton Keynes outfit, Wolff’s latest remarks suggest that the upcoming upgrade in Barcelona will make the W15 much faster.
Toto Wolff jokes Mercedes’ new upgrade will improve W15’s pace by 2 seconds
During the same interview, Wolff explained how Mercedes seem to have found a solution to their problems. The Mercedes team principal believes that his side have found the right balance for their car and that everything seems to be clicking much better.
When asked how much improvement in pace he expects to have because of this upgrade, Wolff jokingly replied, “Two seconds”. He then added that he cannot comment upon the same.
However, he did make it clear that he is definitely optimistic about Mercedes’ chances in the rest of the 2024 season. Mercedes will now hope that their latest bit of optimism does not turn out to be another false dawn.
If the Silver Arrows do end up building momentum from here, Red Bull will have much more problems to worry about. The Milton Keynes-based outfit are already fighting the likes of Ferrari and McLaren hard week in and week out for wins, and now Mercedes could spoil their party even further.
