Mercedes motorsport boss, Toto Wolff is refusing to be complacent believing the team do still have lingering issues with the W08 despite a comprehensive one-two in Canada.
The two Silver Arrows were left somewhat by themselves during the race in Montreal, with Lewis Hamilton able to beat team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 20 seconds with the Finn equally untroubled.
Though problems for their rivals was the main cause for that, it was still a massive contrast to the issues they faced the race before in Monaco, which led to 24-hour work for 10 straight days afterwards to come up with solutions.
“I never feel that,” Wolff said when asked if he though Montreal signalled an end to Mercedes’ issues. “Monaco looked pretty grim but we didn’t dive into depression and Montreal looked pretty great, but I wouldn’t say that the problems are solved. We understood it much better, another set of valuable data points, now we have to move to Baku.”
“We understood it much better, another set of valuable data points, now we have to move to Baku.”
In looking to prove his ongoing caution, the Austrian would point to the seven-tenths deficit between his two drivers in qualifying as the decision to use different tyres played a key part in their gap in the race.
“Although we had pretty similar setups, Lewis’ grip level was increasing throughout qualifying and Valtteri’s grip level was decreasing throughout the session. For no obvious reasons,” Wolff claimed.
“These are the little question marks that remain and we have to just get on top of.”
With Mercedes’ issues mostly specific to the ultrasoft, with only a handful of circuits left on the calendar likely to see the purple-marked rubber, it will be interesting to see if the Brackley-based team continues the form from Canada and, more importantly, whether Ferrari can match it.
