Toto Wolff didn't hide his satisfaction for seeing Lewis Hamilton fighting for the victory in England against Ferrari and Red Bull and even said that the Englishman could have won if it wasn't for the safety-car
Mercedes had two very distinct moments at the British GP on Sunday (3), first with George Russell's involvement in the heavy crash at the start that took him out of the race, and then with Lewis Hamilton's real chance of victory. And the latter thanks to the good performance of the W13, which now seems to have left Toto Wolff quite satisfied.
After the race at Silverstone, the Silver Arrows boss said that it was very encouraging to see the seven-time champion fighting on equal terms against the Ferrari and Red Bull cars. "We are very satisfied! Today the car showed performance. We were in contention for the win, and that's encouraging."
"We probably lost a little speed on the restart, but we had almost no problems with the jumps, and the pace of the car was very encouraging with both medium and hard tires. It was only with the soft tires that we didn't have the grip we needed," Wolff added, also pointing out that it could have been a very different story if not for the intervention of the safety car in the final part. "If it wasn't for the safety-car, he [Hamilton] probably would have won the race."
In the end, Lewis was third, but that did nothing to diminish the feeling of having, in fact, found the performance he has been so desperately seeking for the 2022 season. "The most encouraging thing is that our car was in the race," he said.
"We just want to get back to winning races, that would be great. That's our target, to be in contention with them [Ferrari and Red Bull]. Today, we started to have some fun with the car. Interestingly, the hard tires were easier to warm up than the soft ones," Wolff concluded.