Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton are interested to see how their rivals will approach the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Brackley-based outfit enjoys a perfect record to begin the 2019 season with only Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly’s fastest laps preventing them from having the maximum possible.
Wolff knows, however, that the streets of Baku represent a particularly big banana skin that could throw up the unexpected.
“Three 1-2s in the first three races represent a fantastic start to the season,” the Austrian commented in his pre-race preview.
“We were able to maximise our opportunities, although we didn’t always have the fastest car
“The next stop will take us to Azerbaijan where we’ve seen some very entertaining races in recent years and I’m sure that this year will be no different.
“Baku is not purely about performance, though, and staying out of trouble is also important for a good result.”
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The big question relating to speed however, is whether the rocketship Ferrari on the 2.2km main straight will be enough to outpace the nimble Silver Arrow?
“The layout of the track presents unique challenges and it will be interesting to see which team will find the best compromise to deal with the mixture of long straights and slow corners,” added the Austrian.
Even Hamilton fired the warning shot that the Scuderia can’t be ruled out.
“They gain something like 0.4s in a straight line, then lose out in the corners. It will, therefore, be interesting to discover their strategy for the next races,” he said, with the 0.4s coming from Bahrain.
“They [Ferrari] have a shorter car than ours and this could work better on other tracks we are going on, but it is a little early to say.
“I’m not sure if they had a solid weekend yet, it seemed to them that [the performance was best] at Sakhir, where they seemed to fly.”
Focusing back on Baku, Wolff also sees a chance for redemption for Valtteri Bottas after his drama last year.
“Valtteri drove a strong race last year but a puncture denied him a well-deserved victory shortly before the end,” he recalled.
“He’s had a good start to this season and I’m sure he will be hungry to go for the points he didn’t get last year.
“Unlike last year, Lewis heads to Baku leading the championship and will undoubtedly be looking to repeat his win from 2018.”