Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff admits closing the engine gap to Ferrari is a big motivation over the second half of the season but is wary pushing too hard could impact the championship.
This year, a split battery concept developed by the Italian team has led to questions over the legality of their hybrid system, with claims it produces more than the permitted 160 horsepower, but investigations by the FIA since Monaco have left the governing body satisfied all is above board.
GPS data has suggested the Scuderia is now some way ahead of Mercedes in the power department, with the Prancing Horse half a second faster at Hockenheim on the straights alone, and that is obviously bugging the team which had dominated the engine stakes since 2014.
“I believe that it’s nice again to be in a situation that you’re the challenger and since 2013 we haven’t been the challenger anymore,” Wolff told ESPN.
“It’s so difficult to set the benchmark, you’re basically running around with a cross on your back. Now we know what the level of performance is with the Ferrari, you see it every day on track, and that is something which we are very eager and we are very motivated to achieve.
“We are not going on a rest until we have done that.”
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As a result, Mercedes is set to introduce their third specification engine as soon as the next race at Spa or potentially waiting a week later for the ‘Temple of Speed’ at Monza, either way, the push for performance is on.
“Andy Cowell [Mercedes’ engine boss] and his troops, including the chassis integration team around it, will leave no stone unturned in order to match that,” the Austrian continued.
“We would rather go up in flames than not match the performance.”
Doing that though could have major consequences…
“At the end, a retirement is going to kill you in the championship much more than the ultimate last tenth of performance,” Wolff admitted.
“It’s very complex to extract more performance in the level that we need to be sufficient, but it’s a challenging target.”
Technical director James Allison also believes Ferrari can be beaten another way.
“The development race over the remainder of the season, who stays strong, who doesn’t make mistakes, who can keep their chin up the longest … all the clichés you want to roll out, that is actually what is going to determine this utterly compelling and brilliant year,” he claimed.
“None of us know, none of our opposition knows who it’s going to favour and that’s what makes it so exciting.”