Toto Wolff, Mercedes F1 team boss, said that F1 is witnessing the neck to neck competition between the title contenders. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel battle for title is likely to continue on “marginal gains”.
Mercedes confronted technical issues due to which the title contender struggled to finish at Montreal.
German luxury brand lost the title lead in its stronghold to Ferrari, but Hamilton managed to regain his position at French GP. Valtteri Bottas was quickest of all at Circuit Paul Ricard while Hamilton won aced the race.
Mercedes had planned to upgrade their engine at Montreal which was aborted at last minute resulting in an easy win for Vettel with no potential contender. However, the team’s second attempt at engine was successful which put Mercedes back at center stage.
Wolff said, while celebrating team’s third victory, “I think what you saw in Montreal in comparison to Le Castellet is that marginal gains matter.
“We fell back in Montreal because we couldn’t bring the new power unit, and we were racing power unit number one for the seventh consecutive race, and the others introduced their upgrade. This certainly didn’t help.
“We also constantly are learning on how to set the car up in the right way in combination with the tyres, and of course we also brought some upgrades to the car which was good to see coming together.
“And all these gains in their respective areas added to a solid step that we could materialise on each of the three days at Le Castellet.”
Swinging Championship Lead
The collision of Sebastian Vettel with Valtteri Bottas at the start of the race in France which turned the table upside down on the former.
Last three races have been volatile shifting lead from Hamilton to Vettel and back to Hamilton.
Wolff warned, even though Mercedes is leading the world championship by 14 points, “It can swing so quickly.
“A DNF and the other guy winning makes it swing in the other direction. I don’t expect this to change in whatsoever way.
“This is going to be the story of the season.”
