Wolff hopes Mercedes will be faster in Imola than in Bahrain
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola will be the scene of the second Formula 1 World Championship round on Sunday (start 3 p.m. / live ORF 1, RTL and Sky). Mercedes was able to win World Champion Lewis at the start on March 28 in Bahrain Cheer Hamilton, but had to fight hard with Red Bull's title candidate Max Verstappen. “We won the first race, but we have no illusions that this will be an uncomplicated season,” emphasized team principal Toto Wolff.
Mercedes still has some catching up to do, especially in qualifying. “The car still lacks pace on one lap, and Red Bull currently seems to be in the lead. We are doing everything we can to close the gap, and we find this challenge appealing,” said the 49-year-old Viennese before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on the 4.909-kilometer full-throttle circuit in Imola, which is almost 90 kilometers by car from the Ferrari factory in Maranello. It's only a little more than 15 kilometers to the headquarters of Red Bull's sister team AlphaTauri in Faenza.
“The track is relatively narrow, which makes overtaking difficult, but this means that there is a greater focus on strategy and qualifying becomes all the more important,” said Wolff. That is why Verstappen absolutely wants to secure pole position in the second race. The Dutchman described the start of the season as “great”, despite the narrowly missed victory, because Red Bull series champion Mercedes could now finally fully challenge Mercedes. “But that doesn't guarantee anything for Imola,” said Verstappen. There is always room for improvement in the car, said the 23-year-old.
Hamilton is primarily hoping that his company car is now faster than it was three weeks ago, as Red Bull could have been even further ahead in Bahrain qualifying “at the pace they have,” as the 36-year-old Briton noted . The record world champion in Sakhir lacked the best starting position by almost four tenths. Starfleet still has some catching up to do, especially in high-speed passages. And as is well known, there are plenty of them in Imola.
For the 29th time, the motorsport premier class will be visiting the famous Autodromo near Bologna, last year Hamilton won on the way to his seventh world title. However, because of the tight schedule in the Corona emergency season, Formula 1 had waived the usual Friday training at the time. This year there is the usual program again, but with different times due to the funeral of Prince Philip on Saturday on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
