Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff claims the current championship would look very different had Ferrari taken their chances.
The German manufacturer won the first eight races of 2019, including six 1-2s, before a poor weekend in Austria saw Max Verstappen snap that streak for Red Bull.
As a result, Mercedes enjoy a dominant lead in both championships but Wolff insists their dominance hasn’t been as strong as it appears.
“I think somehow the momentum that Ferrari had in Bahrain was lost because they had the quickest car and they should have won the race with [Charles] Leclerc,” the Austrian told Autosport.
“Charles was the quickest guy in Baku before his crash in qualifying, and Sebastian was in the lead in Montreal before the penalty came. So it could easily have been very different based on pure performance.”
After losing their 100% win record in Spielberg, Mercedes also fear their rivals are now likely to challenge at most races even if their car should be stronger.
“I really enjoyed the hard racing and I think people have criticised that there’s not enough hard racing and that Mercedes were too far ahead,” he stated.
“I think [in Austria] we’ve seen a different scenario, whether they’ve closed the gap, let’s look at the next three races, totally different circuit layouts, totally different weather, and I hope we can come back to our strengths.
“I think that the power deployment isn’t as much of a differentiator through the fast corners. So I think Silverstone should be much more to our liking, maybe not as good as Paul Ricard, but much better than Austria.”
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Indeed, F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn also warns the first taste of defeat for the Silver Arrows might just spur them on further.
“The dream of a clean sweep through the season, which ultimately was probably a bridge too far, is now over, but you’d hardly mark Austria down as a crisis weekend,” he said.
“Maybe it will give the team even greater motivation, although such a voracious squad hardly needs any more drive as they head towards what can be seen as their two home races.”
