Toto Wolff has made a bold call ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix, claiming that if Mercedes give Lewis Hamilton a slightly improved car, the local hero can win at Silverstone.
Mercedes is still searching for the optimal set-up to mitigate the bouncing problems impacting its 2022 car. But marginal improvements of late nevertheless allowed the Brackley squad to secure successive podiums in Baku and in Montreal.
But an upgrade package introduced at Silverstone this weekend might well produce a more significant step forward for the championship winning team and allow it to challenge its Red Bull and Mercedes rivals.
"I think if we give him a car that is just a few tenths off the leaders, he will win the race," a daring Wolff told Reuters.
"He's the most complete driver ever and everybody has his favourite circuit and with Lewis it was always Silverstone, and Montreal and Hungary as well.
"I guess if you have 150,000 people cheering for you in the grandstands it gives you the home game advantage."
Wolff's call is a tall order but the Austrian hopes that Mercedes' performance relative to F1's pair of front-runners will have at least improved thanks to its updates.
"I would hope so, that we have something that is closer to the leaders here than we had before," he said.
A Hamilton triumph on home soil this weekend would be a remarkable feat, not only because it would deliver its first win of the season to Mercedes but also because it would mark an extraordinary achievement by the seven-time world champion who would become the only F1 driver in history to win the same Grand Prix nine times.
"We are working towards that first win (of 2022)," said Hamilton. "It would be an incredible result if we got that this weekend."
A Mercedes triumph at Silverstone, regardless if it's delivered by Hamilton or teammate George Russell, would in any case constitute a memorable milestone.
"Lewis deserves a strong result and a victory because he has been particularly unlucky this season and George's driving was just spectacular," said Wolff.
"Him (Russell) winning a British Grand Prix would be like Lewis, both would be very exciting."
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