Toto Wolff feels the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team had the fastest car in all three races of the first-ever triple-header in Formula 1 history, but circumstances and mistakes prevented them from maximising their results.
Lewis Hamilton may have taken victory in the French Grand Prix, but both he and Valtteri Bottas retired from the race in Austria, while Hamilton and Bottas finished second and fourth in the British Grand Prix last time out, with the team taking pole position in each of those events.
The three wins were shared out between Mercedes, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari, but Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, says the team have left a lot of points on the table heading towards the halfway point of the season, which comes this weekend at the Hockenheimring.
“We didn’t score as many points in the triple-header as we had hoped for,” said Wolff. “A lot of that was down to our own mistakes. However, there is a silver lining to this – while we didn’t maximise on points, we did bring the quickest car to all three races.
“Hockenheim will mark the halfway point of the 2018 season. We’ve had a decent first half – on the one hand, we’ve left points on the table and had to do damage limitation more often than we would have wanted.
“On the other hand, we still scored a good amount of points, both drivers have shown strong performances and we have a fast car. So there are many reasons why we’re looking forward to the second half of the 2018 season; we’re hungry, ambitious and want to kick on from here.”
Hockenheim is the home race of Mercedes-Benz, and Wolff hopes the team can put on a great show for the friends and fans of the team and bring home the result the team deserve with both drivers.
“Going to Hockenheim always feels like coming home; it’s only about a 90 minute drive from the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart,” he said. “While we had the great opportunity to race in front of many of our colleagues from Brackley and Brixworth in Silverstone, we’re now looking forward to welcoming the German members of the Mercedes family to the circuit and to holding high the three-pointed star on home turf.
“The track itself is quite interesting; it has a variety of corner speeds and will test every aspect of the car. We will fight hard to not only put on a good show for our friends and fans in Hockenheim, but also get the result that they will be hoping for.”
