Matching Red Bull on pace is currently the “best possible scenario” for Mercedes at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Toto Wolff claims.
Ever since the world champions appeared to have issues in winter testing, the top two teams have been playing tennis with the title of favourites heading into the new season.
During practice on Friday at least, it does seem as if Red Bull does have the better car, with Max Verstappen finishing fastest in both sessions.
And even after just the first one hour of running, Wolff was continuing with his belief that Mercedes is playing catch up.
“Formula 1 is like many other sports, we are oscillating between depression and exuberance,” he said.
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“When everything is perfect you think ‘here we go, this is ours’. But then when you have a few days that are not very good you kind of look at the data and say how should we ever catch that up.
“So this is what it is, and I think if we are behind, then we just need to catch up and do a good job.
“If we are just about on the same pace, which I would consider today maybe is the best possible scenario for us, then we’re up for the fight with another great team.”
Throughout testing and even in practice, the RB16B did look easier to drive than the W12. And Wolff does think the floor changes for 2021 have made all the difference.
“Even if it looks like it was a carry forward car, I think we probably suffered more with the change of regulations than the cars with the higher rake,” he said.
“The Red Bull has followed that concept for many years, so it has been may be more difficult for us to recover some of the lost downforce.
“But so far from what I have seen and hope is that we can have a really tough fight. This is what the fans want to see, and what we would like to have.
“Red Bull is a formidable team, with people pushing really hard. They have won four championships before the hybrid power units came in, and no doubt they are the strongest competitor.”
On the other side, Red Bull chief Christian Horner was quick to respond.
“It’s always great to see your car at the top of the timesheet,” he told Sky Sports.
“But you know, Mercedes are looking pretty ominous so we don’t take anything for granted. We’re happy with the performance of the car so far.”
Asked where Red Bull have made the difference with this year’s car, Horner replied: “I think, last year, we really understood where some of our weaknesses were.
“We managed to understand what our tools were telling us as well, both the wind tunnel and CFD and some of the correlation issues that we had in replicating what those tools were saying and what we were seeing on track.
“So I think, having understood that, the whole engineering team has worked incredibly hard over the winter. Hopefully, we’ve got a good starting base that we can then build on through the season.”
The Briton also appeared to agree with Wolff, noting how more teams are gravitating towards the high-rake concept.
“Hopefully, it’s something that we can make good use of and, I really hope that we can have a competitive year this year and put a sustained campaign together,” he concluded.
