At the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton secured his 105th career victory following the disqualification of teammate George Russell, who initially crossed the finish line first.
Despite the setback, Russell’s strategy and driving were commendable. Opting for an unlikely one-stop strategy, he turned what seemed like a run to fifth place into a provisional victory.
After the race, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff emphasized the importance of remaining grounded despite the team’s recent successes where they secured victory in 3 of the last 4 races.
“I think we need to remain both feet on the ground,” said Wolff. “The swings of performance, I mean we see a trend. Definitely that’s positive on our side. There are some other teams who see a negative trend. But I don’t think we should really pre-empt how the second half of the season is going to go.”
“It’s a tough fight. There’s four teams ahead. They’re giving it everything. So I think we can be carefully optimistic. But we’ve got to prove it. There’s ten races to go.”
Wolff also highlighted the role of driver initiative in their strategies, particularly commending Russell’s innovative thinking. “Yeah, I think we can pick out similar events where the driver can provide an idea of the race,” he noted.
“There’s so much machines running in the background calculating time and rotation and pace of the others. That’s a bunch of really clever mathematicians and strategists that look at that. So in my opinion, nine out of ten times it’s the data that gives you the direction. You’re the one that needs to rely on the data.”
Nevertheless, Wolff stressed the importance of communication between drivers and engineers. “Driving is already important and what we encourage is great communication between the driver and the engineers to give better data to the strategists,” Wolff explained.
He elaborated on how crucial this interaction is in real-time decision-making during a race. “Today, currently, at a certain stage, there’s nothing more to lose here. So George said, ‘Can we make it a one-stop?’, so we did.” the Austrian concluded.
