Toto Wolff at F1 British Grand Prix: Mercedes tried the Red Bull concept in wind tunnel - but it didn’t work

Toto Wolff said that Mercedes did not discover performance when they experimented with replicating Red Bull’s concept in the wind tunnel.
Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director in the FIA Press Conference. Formula 1 World
Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director in the FIA Press…

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued to dominate in qualifying at the F1 British Grand Prix but McLaren significantly made huge strides after introducing their own u💦pgrade package.

“It🌳’s a wake-up call for us,” said Lewis Hamilton, who qua🅰lified in seventh, about McLaren, whose driver Lando Norris is on the front row.

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“If yo📖u just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very very similar down the side, so📖 it’s working,” Hamilton noted.

Wolff reacted: “I think from what you see from the outside, which is only half of the information, is that𒉰 the car looks like a Red Bull. 

“As a matter of fact, to be hಌonest﷽, it doesn’t matter, because only the stopwatch counts. 

“This is what I guess Lewis was ref๊erring to, because this design seems to be a good direction. 

“But it is easier said than done and each of us had bod🍎ywork that looked like the Red Bull in the [wind] tunnel and it didn’t come in up in p💯erformance. 

“So you have got to leave no stone unturned and maybe do it ܫagain because another team has just found a second in performance.”

Mercedes trusted♐ their radical 'zeropod' concept at the start of this season but have sinced moved away from it, closer to the direction which Red Bull have found joy with, an🐟d which McLaren are replicating.

Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14 looks at the McLaren MCL60 in qualifying parc ferme. Formula 1 World
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14 looks at the McLaren MCL60 in qualifying parc ferme…

Wolff insisted that the newfound pecking order on the Silverstone starting grid is proof that the curre𒁏nt regulations are working.

“It’s exactly that, and I think we have all been part of and active in designing regulations that w🀅ould allow over time smaller teams to catch up and level the playing field,” he said. 

“If you look at Alex Albon on🧸 a single lap, their performance is right there and with Asꩲton coming back, and McLaren, it’s what we wanted. 

“If you take now Max out of the equation, having said that he is 0.4s quicker than the top eight drivers on a 90-second lap, so that is not huge chunks an꧅y more everybody else🐈 is within 0.2s. 

“From P2 to 🍌P9 is 0.2s, so it shows us that the regulations work. Coming back to us, that is then tough, but we knew that.”

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