According to Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton, who showed the third result in qualifying, will have the chance to compete for victory in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. At the same time, the head of the Mercedes team explained what problems were holding George Russell back today.
Q: Qualifying wasn’t bad for Lewis but George couldn’t get into the final session – what kept him from it?
Toto Wolff: Yes, it’s a shame it happened, but he had problems even in yesterday’s practice and it happened again in qualifying. They are due to the fact that it was difficult for him to get the torque right: it seems that the accelerator pedal was left open, and this made it difficult to slow down in corners. And then the problems with the brakes started – in general the car today did not allow George to fight for high positions.
Moreover, there were no problems during the second and third practice and they suddenly came back just before qualifying. Therefore, we must address their causes.
Q: I suppose you have an optimistic attitude for tomorrow’s race judging by the good pace on the long series of circles?
Toto Wolff: Compared to Carlos Sainz, we look really good, but it’s hard to judge everyone because they didn’t spend long series with a high fuel load. Let’s see how things will develop after the start of the race. If Lewis manages to stay ahead then there are chances to fight for a good result, if not then it will be more difficult.
We hope that the weekend will generally be good for us, our calculations indicated this. It seems that we have chosen the right direction with the completion of the car, which is especially important in preparing for the next season.
Q: Do you hope tomorrow’s race will be on a dry track?
Toto Wolff: I don’t know what the forecast is, but we prefer dry weather, but when it rains it is quite possible to expect some chaos on the track, which is also interesting in its own way. In general, whatever the weather, it will be.
Q: During qualifying this season, your riders have not always been able to reach effective rubber. But today Lewis had no problems warming up the rubber when he switched from intermediate tires to slicks…
Toto Wolff: We probably didn’t guess correctly in the tire pressure selection during the third practice session, but we guessed it, so we did everything right in qualifying. While we did have issues with the effectiveness of the rubber in the previous phases…
Q: Lewis was called to the stewards because of the piercing, which was noticed during the third practice – can you comment on that? How can this story end?
Toto Wolff: I don’t know, I’ve stopped following the topic of piercing – let’s see what the stewards say.
Q: Then tell us, what are your goals for the team for tomorrow’s race? Can Lewis battle for the win from third place?
Toto Wolff: You should always strive to win, but when making predictions it is better to be careful. You saw how qualifying developed: we were hoping to fight pole position, but we missed it because Lewis made a blockage in the last sector. On the one hand this is frustrating, on the other hand we took a step in the right direction today and tomorrow we will try to win the race.
Source: F1 News
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