Toto Wolff has written off Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of getting his Formula One season off to a flier.
Amazingly, the Mercedes boss believes there are more parts that DO NOT work properly on the team’s car than actually DO work properly. And he clearly believes Max Verstappen, who so controversially snatched the world title from Hamilton in December, is a long odds-on favourite for victory in Bahrain on Sunday.
After dismal practice sessions on Friday, Wolff was grimly realistic ahead on the eve of the race: “As it stands, judging by practice, Red Bull is in a league of its own. We would love to be a second quicker and driving into the sunset but that’s not the case. We started well in testing in Barcelona but we went downhill from there.”
And when asked to be more specific about what parts of the car were giving Mercedes particular trouble, Wolff gave a sarcastic smile, saying: “It’s easier to say that works... it is less items.”
Ahead of the red lights going out for the first race, Formula One is always full of mind games between the top teams. But even Red Bull boss Christian Horner seemed to concede that Mercedes were off the pace, saying: “It doesn’t look easy for their drivers but we have seen them bounce back from difficult pre-seasons before.
“And with the new regulations, it will be three or four races before we see a true picture. Mercedes will bounce back very quickly if they are on the back foot to start with.”
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Wolff agrees, adding: “We have won eight constructors championships in a row. We have come back before and when we learn, we will come back stronger. I don’t think we can match the leaders’ performance at the moment but it is 23 races.”
But Wolff still warned F1 fans that the hierarchy might change this year: “I don’t think the pecking order that started 2021 is the one that will start 2022.
It might not be the same team pecking order but it is likely to have the same man at the top of the driver pecking order in Verstappen. And Horner said the whole team was buzzing ahead of the Bahrain opener.
He went on: “It has been a lot of hard work but seeing the drivers’ championship come back to Milton Keynes and seeing the number one on the car for this season was just the motivation everyone needed.”
