A series of updates to the W13 , coupled with the bumpless, high-speed Silverstone circuit characteristics allowed Hamilton to challenge for victory with Ferrari.
Although Lewis Hamilton finished third, behind race winner Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez who came from behind, the fact that he was able to fight for a podium place based on pure pace was a big step forward for the Brackley team.
However, despite the performance at the British GP indicating that Mercedes is improving a lot with its car, Wolff is clear that his team will not allow themselves to make the same mistake they made after this year’s Spanish GP.
After that race, in which Hamilton showed similar pace, Mercedes hoped to have turned its season around 180 degrees and to aim for better results.
But problems in the following races – including particularly tricky moments in Monaco and Baku – brought the Silver Arrows back to reality.
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Wolff said the Silverstone result was far from enough for Mercedes to believe they can go on the attack from now on.
Asked if he thought the form at the British GP allowed the team to change its mentality for the rest of the season, Wolff said: “No, not yet, because we had moments in Barcelona where we saw some light in the end of the tunnel”.
“Then the next three street circuits proved us wrong, so I don’t want to talk about us or be too optimistic at this point.”
Although Mercedes is showing a clear step up in speed compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, Wolff believes that Silverstone showed that his team needs to make progress in improving its car’s handling.
In the high-speed corners at Silverstone, both Hamilton and teammate George Russell encountered continual rebound problems, although they were not as severe as those of other teams.
Asked if he thinks Mercedes can finally breathe easy with the W13, Wolff replied: “We also found the address in Barcelona. We still have a driving problem, which we had for all three days, except in the race, and that’s something we need to address.”
Given that the circuit that F1 visits this weekend, the Austrian GP, has not been particularly favorable to Mercedes in the past, Wolff believes it could be a better barometer of his team’s level.
“There are some corners that in the past didn’t sit very well with our car, so that’s something we have to look at,” he said.
“But it’s a constant learning curve. I think this season it’s going to be quite difficult to win, so we have to get things in order to be good with the performance of the car.”
