The Mercedes team needed to put both of its cars on the front row of the grid to give Lewis Hamilton a better chance of claiming his eighth world title at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. However, an incredible lap from Max Verstappen in qualifying Yas Marina, aided by Sergio Pérez after a slipstream, dashed the Germans’ hopes of scoring a brace on Saturday.
The boss of the Germans, Toto Wolff , spoke after the qualifying session and was disappointed, but still believes that all is not said. Hamilton had the best lap in Q2 on the medium tyre, so he will start the race on this set of tyres, while the Red Bulls opted for the soft, to which Wolff commented: “I prefer to start on the medium, not from the second position, but with this rubber. We will have a slight disadvantage at the start and in the first six or seven laps, but only if Verstappen goes fast.”
“We can extend the stop, in addition to the fact that we have the option of aggressively undercutting and trying to control the position on the track. During the night, we are going to investigate possible strategies to see the options,” he said.
Free practice on Friday allowed the teams to see the pace of their rivals, but the real performance was seen in qualifying: “I’m worried about tomorrow because their long runs were much better on Friday, but our tires were not in the Optimal work window. You can see that Q1 and Q2 were ours, but suddenly we lost performance. It seems that in the race it will be easier”.
“The pace is there obviously in the long runs, although we don’t know who will be the fastest tomorrow and who will win the race, regardless of the tires on each other. We just have to work on that and hopefully get to what higher tomorrow,” he said.
Toto Wolff knows very well what Lewis Hamilton is capable of, and he thinks that being second in the standings can help him give the best of himself: “I don’t think there’s anything I have to say to him, he’s going to be angry, and that It’s good, he’ll be motivated for tomorrow. We’re behind and sometimes that’s a positive, and it’s not a bad starting point.”
“If we can keep second place at the start, it’s an advantage over those on the soft, but if you lose positions, it will be difficult. This is a long race and, as Nico said, it’s Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of a car “, he concluded.
The race at Yas Marina will decide the winner of the F1 world title for the 2021 season, and the DRS and the straights could be vital, although at Mercedes they see that another factor could be important: “I think they have put a smaller wing [Red Bull] to have more top speed, so there’s no real difference for the straight. The key will be strategy and you need to have a totally different one.”
Despite putting Hamilton on the front row of the grid, his squire, Valtteri Bottas, could barely be sixth, so he will not have, in principle, the Finn’s help. Wolff weighed in on the ranking of the next Alfa Romeo driver: “The difference between 3rd and 6th was one tenth, I think it was all around that margin, it’s a shame to have Valtteri so far down the grid.”
“Possibly he has two tenths more on his engine and if he starts in the middle of the pack, he will only have to get through the first and second laps to see where we are and how we can improve from there.”
