Toto Wolff believes the fight for the 2021 F1 World Championship is far from over, however the Mercedes team principal believes that for the first time in eight years the team are lacking pace. Red Bull made it four wins in a row after Max Verstappen took the chequered flag at the Styrian GP, leading from start to finish after starting from pole. While Wolff was pleased with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finishing second and third respectively, he knows Red Bull have the advantage at this time. "Not a bad result, but what's tough is that it's the first race in eight years where you're just lacking the pace," Wolff told Sky Sport after the race. "We have stopped developing for this year because we believe that next year is so important to get it right, and they keep adding bits. "All credit to their strategy, you feel like they are eeking away at the new power unit, consolidating their performance so we just got to get our heads up together and get the best out of the package that we have. "This is far from over." As for how Mercedes will respond ahead of next weekend's race at the same track, Wolff believes there are some positives the team can use to try and bridge the gap to their rivals. "The next [few] days looks like scratching our heads and trying to look at the race and see whether there is anything we could have done better in terms of setup direction," Wolff added. "I think we found some clues for qualifying, is there something we could have optimised with the race pace and obviously there's always a balance. "I'm really looking forward to analyse and see in a week's time whether we can do a better job."
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