Toto Wolff, Mercedes Formula 1 team principal, refused to lower its guards against its rival teams.
He will be pushing his team for the rest of the season to extract more and more from the team. He insisted that the team shall raise their level beyond what it had achieved so far.
Wolff pointed out that to keep other teams away from being a threat to their bid to win title championship, team have to exceed current level.
Mercedes is currently leading the season. Lewis Hamilton is leading the driver’s list while team tops the constructor championship chart.
Both driver and team still has advantage over others, but that could not remain true beyond two or three races if Mercedes fails to keep its rivals at toes to push further.
Battle for Crown of 2019
Wolff rejects the idea that the fight among rivals is over.
Instead, unlike others he perceives that title championship battle is still open. The battle would be intensified if the rivals could manage to return stronger after the summer break.
“We’re leading in both championships, but it doesn’t feel that way,” he said.
“In the last few years, we saw teams perform very strongly after summer shutdown, so now we need to keep pushing.
“In that respect, we’re approaching the start to the second half of 2019 more like the start to a completely new season – once again, we need to make sure that we leave no room for error and keep raising the bar.”
F1’s next two destinations, Spa-Francorchamps and Autodromo Nazionale Monza, have played out quite well for Mercedes’ V6 engine.
Mercedes had dominated Spa with three out of five races since 2014. The newly introduced V6 power plants have given more advantage at Italian Grand Prix where team has won all five races.
“We’re very excited for the upcoming months with historic races like Belgium and Italy followed by the Singapore night race and many other fantastic events,” added Wolff.
“The next stop takes us to Spa, one of the most iconic circuits on the calendar.
“Finding the right set-up is tricky because the track has a challenging mix of long straights, a wide range of corner speeds, and also considerable elevation changes.
“The weather can also be somewhat unpredictable in the Ardennes, which can make the sessions very interesting. We’re looking forward to the fight.”
