Wolff: “Maybe they’ll even do us a favour”
The chance that qualifying mode will be banned from the Belgian Grand Prix is considerable. The FIA hopes that the difference between Mercedes and the teams below will narrow. Toto Wolff does not understand the change of course and states that the desired effect may not be achieved.
Indeed, according to Mercedes’ team boss, even the opposite could happen. In conversation with Sky Sports says Wolff. “At the end of the day you take performance away from different teams. We’ve been concentrating for years that this particular aspect works and now you come in from the far left and say, ‘We don’t want this anymore’.”
The Austrian top man continues his story: “I think, in the end, I think it’s just a new challenge for us. If this ‘party mode’ takes a few laps away from us in qualifying, then we can go up four or five times in the race with more power. And right now it’s the race that’s our weakness, not qualifying. Maybe they’ll even do us a favour”, Wolff says.
The new rule will allow one engine position later on. What Wolff means is that Mercedes may not opt for the power unit’s current race mode. The German race team could also be somewhere in the middle. That would mean that the W11 will be slower in qualifying, but it will be faster in the race.
Source: gpblog.com; gpfans.com
