Toto Wolff commended both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas after the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team earned a one-two finish in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton was in sublime form as he stormed to his first victory of the season, while Bottas climbed from fourth on the grid to finish just over thirteen seconds behind his team-mate.
Wolff, the Team Principal of Mercedes, said it was pleasing that the gearbox issues that hindered both drivers during the Austrian Grand Prix at the same circuit just seven days earlier seemed to have been rectified, at least enough to get both cars home without any dramas.
“I think we can be very satisfied with this weekend, with a great drive to victory for Lewis and Valtteri coming home to secure a 1-2 finish for the team,” said Wolff. “It’s been a tremendous job from everybody to get our worries from last weekend under control and deliver this level of performance.
“The gearbox issue was fixed, and the suspension concerns were still not 100% comfortable, but in the end, it was all good.”
Wolff said it was pleasing to get a one-two finish on a track that has not been that kind to them over the years, but the team’s attention has already switched to the final race of the first triple header of 2020 at the Hungaroring this coming weekend.
“This track hasn’t been too kind to us in recent years, but we were never really troubled here and bringing the two cars home like this is a nice result,” he said. “Now we look ahead to Budapest and the final round of this triple-header.
“We have been starved of motor racing for so long, so we can’t wait to be back out on track again in just a couple of days. We just love the stopwatch, the brutal honesty of it and the Hungaroring is a great track and a very different challenge to Spielberg, so it will be interesting to benchmark ourselves there.”
