Toto Wolff was over the moon after seeing his Mercedes-AMG Motorsport team clinch a fourth consecutive one-two finish in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a record-breaking achievement.
No team had ever achieved four consecutive one-two’s at the start of a season before, but Mercedes were able to achieve that, with Valtteri Bottas clinching his second victory of the year ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Wolff, the head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said was pleasing to see a flawless performance from everyone at Mercedes, including the drivers, strategists, engineers and mechanics, and it was fantastic to bring home the points for first and second once more.
“I’m really happy, this was another fantastic performance from the entire team,” said Wolff. “We didn’t make any major mistakes and that’s what has won us this race; our car was quick, the strategy calls were right, the pit stops were executed flawlessly and the drivers didn’t put a foot wrong.”
Wolff felt it was important to let both Bottas and Hamilton fight one another for the victory, with the ‘calculated risk’ paying off with the one-two finish, and he is pleased to have two drivers in the team that react well under pressure and can race in a clean and respectful manner.
“We let the two drivers race today; we told them to take it easy at the beginning of the second stint because we didn’t know how long the tyre would last, but both at the start of the race and in the end they were free to fight each other,” admitted Wolff.
“Both of them perform really well under pressure and neither of them made any mistakes today, so it was a calculated risk but it was good to see them race each other in a clean, respectful manner.”
Wolff was pleased that Bottas was able to get some redemption in 2019 after losing a potential win in 2018 with just three laps remaining after acquiring a puncture from running over debris whilst in the lead.
“I’m very pleased with the result and happy that Valtteri found some redemption after his bad luck here in Baku last year,” concluded Wolff.
