MEXICO CITY — Toto Wolff believes Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix will be Mercedes’ best shot a securing a victory this season, but stressed that beating Max Verstappen would not be an easy task.
Verstappen pipped George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to pole position on Saturday by 0.3s, although both Mercedes drivers lost out after Russell made a mistake on his final lap and Hamilton encountered an engine issue that momentarily cut power coming out of crucial corners on his fastest laps.
Mercedes has not won a grand prix under F1’s new regulations this season, bringing an end to eight years of dominance within the sport.
In qualifying in Mexico City, the relative performance of Russell and Hamilton looked as close as it has been to Verstappen all year and, with three races remaining, Wolff believes Sunday’s race will be the team’s best shot at a win in 2022.
“Yeah, I think so,” he told media after qualifying. “The good thing is that in our simulations we had that in a way on the radar – it being the best race – so that is good that it correlates with the real world.
“But the most important thing is that we really have the pace and slowly but surely we are going forward and learning the lessons for next year.”
The long straight from the grid to Turn 1 in Mexico City could provide an opportunity for Russell and Hamilton to slipstream and pass Verstappen into the first corner. Nevertheless, Wolff said Verstappen will remain tough competitor to beat over the course of the 71-lap race.
“I think in all my life there is only a handful of occasions I have been confident, but never in Formula One,” Wolff said. “I’m annoyed about not being on pole, because it would have ticked a box, but equally having Max with his top speed advantage behind us would have been a problem tomorrow.
“And starting second and third can be advantageous and I hope we can stick our nose, or both noses, into Turn 1 and then disappear into the distance. Definitely that is going to be difficult.
“Our long runs [in practice] were good, but then the Red Bull had a decent pace on the second and third flying lap and our tyres degraded. So the honest answer is, I don’t know. I very much hope that we can be competitive.”
Mercedes sudden increase in performance relative to its rivals is partly down to the Mexico City’s altitude, which is over 2,200 metres above sea level and over 1,400 metres higher than any other circuit on the F1 calendar. The reduction in air density means the cars create less drag, which has been a key weakness of Mercedes this year, while the engine’s turbocharger has to spin faster to generate the same amount of power.
“For many years Mexico wasn’t a good race for us because of the altitude,” Wolff added. “But the power unit guys have really given us a super strong engine and we suffer a lot less from our draggy car here, while running high downforce like all the others. Generally that has been a better place for us in the past.”