F1 News: Mercedes Could Take First Victory At Mexico GP According To Team Chief

Toto Wolff is looking forward to a good race this Sunday.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen may have found pole position ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, but Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were merely tenths behind after showing huge potential at the high-altitude track. 

Despite this, both drivers were unhappy with their qualifying runs with Russell left "kicking" himself, and Hamilton suffering from engine issues that dropped his power. But with this track having the longest starting sprint of the season, the team is looking forward to using this to their advantage with them expected to use the tow from Verstappen for extra speed.

Despite the stars starting to align for the team, chief Toto Wolff stays hesitant, admitting that he's never been confident in F1. 

“I think in all my life, there’s only a handful of occasions that I’ve been confident, and never in Formula 1. So the truth is I don’t know.

“I’m annoyed about not being on pole, because it would have ticked a box, but equally having Max with his top speed advantage behind us would have been a problem tomorrow.

“Starting second and third can be advantageous, and I hope we can stick our nose or both noses into Turn 1 and disappear into the distance.

“But definitely that’s going to be difficult.”

It's been over ten years since Mercedes hasn't won a single race during a season, and with only three races left of 2022, fans are hoping the team will be able to get their first golden victory this weekend. Wolff adds to this excitement, admitting that Mexico has been their best race in the simulations:

“Yeah, I think so.

“The good thing is that in our simulations, we had [Mexico] in a way on the radar as being the best race. So that is good that it correlates, the virtual world correlates with the real world.

“The most important [thing] is that we really have the pace, and slowly but surely, we are going forward and learning the lessons for next year.”

The high altitude conditions of the Mexican Grand Prix will allow the Mercedes to be faster. The aero setup on the car currently creates a lot of drag, but with the air being much thinner here, this will be drastically reduced. Alongside the fact that their engine still works well with this thinner air, Mercedes fans could well be in for a good Sunday. 

“For many years, Mexico wasn’t a good place for us because of the altitude,” Wolff admitted. “But [the] power unit guys have really given us a super strong engine here.

“We suffered less from our draggy car here, whilst running high downforce like all the others. Generally that has been better for us in the past.”