“We still have the opportunity to put right”– Mercedes opt to upgrade 2021 car to compete against Red Bull; reverse on Toto Wolff words?

“We still have the opportunity to put right”– Mercedes has spotted few areas to improve to compete against Red Bull for the championship.

Mercedes has decided to upgrade its car in the hope to accelerate its challenge against Red Bull for the championship, as they are currently 40 points behind the Milton-Keynes-based team.

The decision is in contrast to Toto Wolff’s constant emphasis on his team dedicating its whole resources on the 2022 car, and not on 2021. But James Allison claims they are not speaking the opposite.

“We have several things that will make our car faster in the coming races. Let’s hope they prove sufficient,” said James Allison. When asked Wolff has refused any upgrades on Mercedes this year, he replied “That’s basically what I’m saying, yes.”

We are not against each other’s words

Allison then extensively talked about why he is not contradicting Wolff, and according to him, Wolff never meant an absolute freeze on upgrades, rather most of the resources being applied on 2022 regulations.

 “I don’t think the two things are at odds with each other and I don’t think Toto has said precisely that [there will be no more upgrades]. What Toto points out is that next year’s rules are a big and hairy affair and they demand a huge amount of our attention.

“So most of the focus of our factory has switched over to next year, the performance discovery for next year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things still in the food chain from before that focus switch.

“Furthermore it isn’t all of the factories, and we are only one of two factories – there is also the power-unit factory and there is a little more to come from the PU.

“So there’s some more aerodynamic change in the offing, a little bit of PU we hope on the delivery side, and a few things that are not quite as tidy as we would wish that we still have the opportunity to put right while this season is still very much alive and hot.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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