Toto Wolff: We just need winter weather!

Commenting on George Russell’s qualifying performance on Sky Sports today, Toto Wolff joked that Mercedes “just needs winter weather” to achieve high results. He meant that in Las Vegas at the end of November, and even at night it is very cold: for example, now it is only +6.

Toto Wolff: “We just need winter weather! (laughs) We have to compete at circuits like Silverstone and Spa, where it is also cold and raining. Or in Las Vegas, where we race at midnight.

It is in these conditions that our car comes alive – when it is cold, when there are clutch problems, so we are happy that this is the weather here this weekend.

Obviously everything is relative. But judging by the information we received from our drivers, the car actually works quite well. At the same time, we hear many more complaints about other teams’ cars; their drivers say the grip is not good enough.

For next year we must try to create a car that will work effectively on any track and in any conditions. But let’s see what results we can achieve tomorrow.

At the same time, I don’t know yet what race pace we can show, but I do know that Charles Leclerc was the fastest in a long series of laps during yesterday’s practice. In any case, to start with it is important to make sure that the rubber does not granulate too much, and then we will see how it goes. But overall, any of the top teams can win tomorrow’s race.

If we talk about Lewis Hamilton, he was fastest in the second qualifying session, but we still need to analyze why. In any case, the most important session of the weekend awaits us tomorrow. Let’s hope nothing will stop us from winning.

We weren’t that competitive here last year. In my opinion we then showed the third result in qualifying, but in the race we rolled back a bit. In general, we know that the cold weather suits us, but the circuit itself is less suitable for the Mercedes car. But in the fast Turn 3, for example, we were much faster than all competitors. So overall there are encouraging signs.”