Mercedes boss Toto Wolff showered Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with praise after the team's double podium finish at the French GP
Mercedes had what can be considered a great day for its own limits in the 2022 season: it achieved a double podium at the French GP this Sunday (24), in the heat of Paul Ricard. Toto Wolff, Mercedes' CEO and team boss, heaped praise on the driver duo and extolled the team's ability to take advantage of races to do their best.
Although he restrained his emotion, since Mercedes is far from the victories it has dominated in the eight years prior to this one, the boss did not shy away from highlighting the performances of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, second and third place respectively.
"I would be delighted with the win, but we need to be humble. At the moment, our car is not good enough to fight for wins with the guys in front. I am always pessimistic, because we are 0s6 or 0s7 short of the leaders," he assessed.
"Although today Verstappen was not opening up more for us, the truth is that he was taking care of the tires. Our drivers did a great job. Russell is smart and fast, Lewis is a lion. We are getting the most out of the race days," he assured.
About the warning for Russell to stop complaining and asking Sergio Pérez to return the position after an initial fight between the two, he explained. "I felt that Russell had the pace to catch up with Perez on the track, so I had to give him that rewire in his head," he said.
Asked about why Mercedes is so much stronger on Sundays than Saturdays, he said he still doesn't fully understand.
"I don't know... We have a hard time getting the tire window right, and in qualifying we sometimes manage to do that on the second and third laps launched, but we miss the peak, which is the first one. Then you can see that we start apparently 3s slower and we stabilize. It's still a concern, but I believe we have the best people taking care of it," he said.
Finally, Mercedes projects what it can do this year and how to prepare for 2023. "Sometimes we talk about what happens if we don't win again and how we can recover. We had a rough patch at the beginning of the year, but in a way we were able to adjust to the situation and we are hunters now. Lewis is pushing the limits of the car and remains optimistic," he concluded.
Formula 1 returns next weekend, July 29-31, at the Hungaroring, with the Hungarian Grand Prix, which closes the first part of the championship.