Mercedes will go to this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix “determined” to cap off another highly successful year with a first victory since claiming the Constructors’ Championship in Austin last month, according to Motorsport boss Toto Wolff.
The Brackley-based team haven’t dropped off in performance in the final races in 2017 but incidents in Mexico and qualifying in Brazil have put Lewis Hamilton out of contention since taking the chequered flag at the Circuit of the Americas, while teammate Valtteri Bottas has lost out to Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel to finish second at the last two events.
Looking ahead to Yas Marina, Wolff insisted the level of desire inside Mercedes remains as it did 19 races ago and, after celebrating the team’s fourth successive double championship win at the factory on Monday, reflected on a year that has seen the German manufacturer pushed harder than ever before in the hybrid era.
“We head to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the 2017 season with the same hunger and fire in our stomach that we took to Melbourne over seven months ago,” the Austrian began. “During that time, we have pushed ourselves to new limits, bounced back from painful defeats and conquered new and unexpected challenges.
“Spurred on by strong rivals, we had to dig deeper this year than ever before and that battle made both titles the most satisfying yet. Our target was to become the first team to win championships across a major regulation change and we are proud to have achieved that.”
In the face of that stiffer competition from Ferrari and Red Bull, however, maintaining the momentum going into what Non-Executive Chairman Niki Lauda has admitted will be an even closer fight in 2018, is important to Wolff.
“Regardless of what stands in the trophy cabinets back at base, our focus is always on the next race and the next championship,” he stated. “Our goal in Abu Dhabi is quite simple: to give the best of ourselves, to extract the maximum from our “diva” in her final race – and to win.
“We saw promising pace in both Mexico and Brazil, both circuits where we had expected to struggle more than we did, and this is a positive sign of the progress we have made in understanding our difficulties this year, but we have not been on the top step of the podium since Austin and we are determined to change that in Abu Dhabi.”
Three consecutive wins in the desert would suggest adding a 12th victory for the team this season should be on the cards, but the Mercedes boss admits it may not be plain sailing.
“The circuit offers a range of slow to medium speed corners that perhaps are not our car’s most natural habitat, but our recent steps forward give us confidence that we can perform strongly there,” Wolff claimed.
“Valtteri is on an upward swing of form, with two podiums in the past two races; and Lewis will be aiming to finish this historic season on a high. This is a goal that we all share.”
