Mercedes won’t upgrade 2021 F1 car despite Hamilton’s plea

Max Verstappen claimed a dominant victory in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix to take his fourth win of the season and further extend his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton, who finished a distant second.

After finding it “impossible” to keep up with Verstappen’s pace throughout the race in Styria, Hamilton stressed that Mercedes “really needs an upgrade of some sort” to take the fight to Red Bull.

Mercedes has now gone four races without a win for the first time in the V6 hybrid era but Wolff insisted that the team will not change its development plan by pulling back resource from its all-new car for 2022.

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Asked if there would be no upgrades coming this year for Mercedes, Wolff replied: “That is basically what I am saying yes.

“It is very, very tricky decision because we are having new regulations not only for next year but the years to come, a completely different car concept. And you’ve got to choose the right balance and pretty much everybody’s going to be on next year’s car. Some may still bring stuff.

“Red Bull brought vans on Thursday and Friday with new parts and fair enough, it’s a strategy, and one that proves to be successful as it stands, because today they were simply in a league of their own from a car pace wise.”

Wolff revealed he had spoken to Hamilton about Mercedes’ “very rational decision” to focus next year’s rules revolution, while he dismissed the suggestion that Mercedes is effectively accepting defeat in the title race through its reluctance to develop its 2021 car.

“The championship is not only played with adding aerodynamic parts, because at a certain stage, even the ones like Red Bull who keep on adding parts need to switch all of the development into next year,” Wolff added.

“And that means all the exploitation of the car around the set-up work, the tyres, and the optimisation of how we are running will become a very, very important part.

“And it would make no sense to put a week or two or month back on the current car, as the gains wouldn’t be anywhere near of the gains you’re making on the 2022 car. But having said that, this [title battle] is far from over.

“We had a very difficult weekend in Austria with no weapons in our armoury to win this race fair and straight, but we will be winning races this year and will be having pole positions and will be fighting as much as we can for every single result.”