Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says Mercedes is facing a difficult weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as it is one of the worst tracks for their car.
The team finished the first day of training over four tenths of a second slower than pacemaker Max Verstappen in his Red Bull.
“For us, this has never been such a happy place in terms of car performance,” said Wolff, “although we love Mexico because we feel so welcome.”
Wolff reiterated Lewis Hamilton’s claim that the team’s deficit was mainly due to a lack of downforce rather than the performance of its engine.
“We don’t seem to be able to find the sweet spot, so we’re going in different directions today,” he said. “It is positive that our engine is developing well. That was a small gap in previous years, that’s fine.
“So I think for us it’s about doing the best job possible, and that might be difficult with Max’s performance, to put it simply.”
Wolff pointed out that the last time the team visited the track, in a year in which they won both championships, the team was 0.504 seconds behind the best time of Verstappen in qualifying.
“In our dominant year of 2019, in which we beat everyone, we lost qualifying here by half a second, if I’m right,” he said. “So Monaco is probably the weakest of all our routes.”
Valtteri Bottas overtook Hamilton on the first day of training. While there has been speculation as to whether Red Bull will have to enforce team orders at the expense of home hero Sergio Perez, Wolff hopes he won’t have to instruct Bottas to let his championship favorite Hamilton pass.
“Nobody wants to make such a terrible decision to play team commands when a driver can win the race,” said Wolff. “We weren’t in the situation yet [this year].
“We were in Sochi [in 2018] And I hated every minute, every second of that decision. So I have to decide how I should play that on Sunday, I have to see how the qualification goes and we will certainly discuss that beforehand. “
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Mexico City Grand Prix 2021
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