As Red Bull and McLaren had a fine race in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, it was quite the opposite for Mercedes. Apart from Lewis Hamilton’s first lap shunt with his teammate George Russell, the whole sprint race weekend went a bit off for the Silver Arrows. Now, team principal Toto Wolff, as per FormulaPassion shared an update that predicts nothing but the same outcome for the team in the upcoming two races in Austin and Sao Paulo.
As the Qatar GP did not go too well for the Brackley-based team, it showed how the Sprint race weekends are usually too intense for them compared to normal race weekends. Notably, this is the same for all teams as they get very little time to test their cars.
Furthermore, Wolff emphasized how the cars from Brackley have personal issues with added racing miles on these race weekends.
Wolff shared his prediction for the upcoming races
Wolff, while talking about his team’s chances in the upcoming races, said that the W14’s “diva” behavior has been a cause of concern for them. He added that this was the only reason that made their race weekends usually tougher.
Speaking about this as per FormulaPassion, the Mercedes boss said, “Weekends with the Sprint are not the best for us, precisely because the car is such a ‘diva’.”
This means that the upcoming Sprint race weekends in Austin and Sao Paulo would be tough for them to race in. On the other hand, it gives impetus to Ferrari who are currently chasing them, and are marginally away from them in the points tally.
Wolff also predicted their disadvantage over Ferrari
As Mercedes and Ferrari are in direct contention for the P2 in the Constructors’ championship, therefore, the upcoming Sprint race weekends could prove to be disastrous for the Silver Arrows.
Since the Sprint race weekends have more points in the pool than usual race weekends, this would give the Prancing Horse an extra advantage who are already very good on these weekends.
As Ferrari looks to slash Mercedes’ 28 points in the championship, Lewis Hamilton would also be fancying reaching P2 in the drivers’ championship if it happens otherwise. Therefore, that would be a hard statement coming out from the seven-time world champion ahead of the 2024 F1 season.
