Wolff: “I believe in karma”
Far from rejoicing in Ferrari's technical woes, Toto Wolff is happy to have secured a new pole position on Mercedes' home turf, especially since the weekend didn't start off on the right foot.
Following the qualifications, a statement by Toto Wolff started circulating around the Hockenheim paddock: the Mercedes team principal allegedly said there was a ‘disease’ at Ferrari, as both Scuderia cars were stuck in the garage due to technical problems during the session.
During the press briefing organized at the end of the day, he insisted on revisiting this statement, explaining that it was primarily a translation issue since the word used in German rather conveys having problems all the time. He therefore defended himself from using the word illness about any other team: Ferrari is one of the most important teams in F1, if not the most important. We are looking for competition against them. That’s where the glory comes from.
Especially since before looking at what’s happening elsewhere, he is disappointed by his own team’s performance:
“We arrived with a large package of improvements and we should have been far ahead and we were not throughout the weekend. Essentially, we are not satisfied with our performance. The situation could have been very different if Ferrari had finished.”
If Mercedes got rid of the Ferrari threat without a fight, Toto Wolff knows that another threat is still present: « His name is Max Verstappen. Red Bull is very performant on tough tarmacs and in the heat. Max has a very good race pace and manages his tires very well. »
While everything seems to be going well for Mercedes on the weekend when they celebrate their 200th Grand Prix and 125 years in motorsports, the Austrian fears that it may backfire on a team that could be too confident: “Everything that could go wrong will go wrong when you dress like this, with all the friends and family around, being the title sponsor of the Grand Prix.” One could feel in his words that he only had one thing on his mind: returning to normal and forgetting a bit about the folklore of the weekend: “I’m not particularly superstitious but I believe in karma. It’s nice to be a bit different this weekend but now I think it’s time to forget our fun outfits and do our best tomorrow.”
Listening to him, one would almost forget that his team has just clinched its eighth pole position in eleven races…
From our special envoy in Hockenheim
