Toto Wolff admits that Mercedes aren't "back" yet, but he is feeling hopeful about their prospects. Over the last 10 laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell looked like they were in the mix withthe leaders, with Hamilton almost keeping pace with the two cars ahead. At one stage it looked as if he might have been able to overtakeCarlos Sainz, but the Briton soon started losing small amounts of time to the Ferrariahead. There has been much discussion about how Mercedes appeared stronger at the event and, while Wolff has agreed that things were alittle better, he believes that there is still a lot more work to be done to put his drivers inthe same zone as the leaders.
Wolff: We just need to keep working
"You can see at the hairpin they put in new asphalt, so we suffer less from the stiffness of the car, which is the main problem," Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "But before the Safety Car came out at the end, we were actually quicker than Carlos Sainz and [Max] Verstappen, but you're picking out a few laps and saying, 'Yeah, we are back', but I don't think that's the case here. "We just need to keep working." The team raised the ride height of their car ever so slightly to help with the porpoising that has plagued them all season long, making the W13 a little more driveable in Canada. "We just need to develop the car in a different window that we had," Wolff continued. "We had it really low on the ground but clearly that doesn't function, so I think we have development direction. We didn't get it right in many areas, but we own the problem and we need to fix it."
Can Mercedes be contenders at Silverstone?
Now the hope for Mercedes is that they will be able to run the car low at the upcoming British Grand Prix so that they can be even more competitive, especially for Hamilton and Russell’s home event. However, Wolff remains cautious about getting too optimistic, particularly given that the team had previously looked stronger at the Spanish Grand Prix, only to have a more difficult weekend in Monaco one week later. "If we are able to run the car low then we can be competitive," Wolff suggested. "But after Barcelona we [were] cheering, 'We're back in the championship fight', so let's see."
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