Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff is anticipating a ‘close fight’ with Red Bull at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
Mercedes endured a difficult Emilia Romagna GP last time out as Lewis Hamilton recovered from a slide to finish second and cling onto the championship lead, whilst Valtteri Bottas crashed out after controversially colliding with Williams’ George Russell.
Reflecting on what he described as “a crazy race” for the memories, Wolff admitted that he pondered the possibility of zero points, saying; “there were a few moments where it felt like we wouldn’t score any points at all,” during “a rollercoaster of emotions” throughout the race.
Wolff consequently feels that to enter this race leading both the driver and constructor championships “… almost felt like a get out of jail free card,” due to Mercedes’ rivals failing to punish their poor race with maximum effect through own performances.
In the drivers’ championship, Hamilton leads Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just one point, whereas Mercedes lead Red Bull by seven points in the constructor championship.
Looking ahead to Portimao this weekend, Wolff predicts that tyres could well come into play after the medium tyre compound took two laps to get up to pace at last year’s race although track conditions are set to improve this time round six months later.
Hamilton eventually went on to deliver his record-breaking 92nd F1 race victory ahead of Bottas in an one-two finish last October, despite both drivers briefly conceding the lead in the opening laps to Carlos Sainz who started on soft tyres.
Wolff however isn’t expecting his Silver Arrows to dominate this weekend in the manner that they did in 2020, commenting; “We’re expecting another close fight with Red Bull, and both McLaren and Ferrari could also be in the mix too.”
The 49 year-old also is wary of how new the Algarve International Circuit still is for all the teams, which he hopes will create an “interesting” period of “learning all through the weekend.”