Wolff: Ferrari puts pressure on Mercedes

Si Lewis Hamilton snatched the pole against Sebastian Vettel at the Belgian GP, ​​the German quickly took the advantage to claim his 5th victory of the season and come back to 17 points behind the Championship leader. The star-studded team plans to launch the response this weekend on the grounds of its rival in Monza (Italy), even if the double acquired last year will be difficult to reproduce.

“We did not come back from the summer break the way we wanted, commented the executive director of Mercedes Motorsports, Toto wolff. The race at Spa clearly showed that the Ferrari was the best car on track, whether in terms of performance or tire preservation. We just weren't fast enough to threaten Vettel after he took the lead on the first lap. »

Mercedes nevertheless benefited from the retirement of Kimi Räikkönen after his clash at the start with Daniel Ricciardo to increase its lead to 15 points in the Manufacturers' Championship.

“That’s the positive thing from last weekend. However, it is clear that we must find more performance if we want to continue to win more points than our opponents, added the Austrian. The advantage is constantly oscillating between Ferrari and us this season and nothing is certain... We made good progress at Spa with our new engines and we will continue our developments in a sustained manner over the coming weeks. »

Mercedes hopes to regain the advantage this weekend at Monza, while the two teams are tied on the number of victories with 5 victories collected by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

“We won a double last year at Monza, but no one expects it to be easy this year and we will have to raise our level of play to fight for victory. The Ferraris have been impressive on the straights lately and that will certainly be an advantage there”, analyzed Toto Wolff.

Mercedes remains undefeated at the Italian track since 2014, but Ferrari's last home victory dates back to 2010 with Fernando Alonso.