Mercedes certainly have their work cut out for them this season as the Red Bull outperforms the championship-winning team time and time again.
The season so far has seen the 2020 victors having to battle right to the finish line in most cases, as opposed to last season when Mercedes fairly well glided to victory.
Issues with the W12’s setup have been met numerous times, and where the Red Bull team seems to have hit the sweet spot with their RB16B at a number of circuits, Mercedes continue to grapple for balance.
Speaking ahead of the race this weekend, Toto Wolff says the team is ready to continue the fight but is prepared for a similar outcome at the home circuit of the charging bulls.
Explaining the 2021-2022 balance, the Team Principal told Sky F1: “It’s certainly very tough because of this strategic situation that we have a completely new car next year.
“With a different fuel, a different engine that will be homologated and frozen, and the car is basically like you are going to a totally different concept.
“You need to balance these two seasons against each other.
“Time will tell when we look back in five or 10 years whether it was the right or the wrong decision but, in any case, this fight is not over.”
As for the work going on behind the scenes ahead of the second consecutive race at the Spielberg venue, Wolff said;
“The next days look like scratching our heads and trying to look at the race and see if there is anything we could have done better with set-up direction,” explained Wolff on Sunday.
“I think we found some clues for qualifying. Could we have optimised on race pace?
“Obviously, that’s always a balance. It’s very interesting; I’m really looking forward to analysing and see whether in a week’s time we can do a better job.”
“Even if we take another one on the chin this week we will take it, we’ll score the points and go to Silverstone, a track that we love.”
