Toto Wolff has warned Mercedes could struggle against Red Bull if it suffers a poor start in today's Spanish Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton took pole position ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg in Barcelona, with the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen set to start from row two. While Wolff admits he was expecting Ferrari to be Mercedes' closest challenger he is taking nothing for granted after a number of poor starts this season.
“Quite a surprise actually, because Ferrari has been very strong in a couple of sessions over the weekend and something must have gone wrong for them in qualifying," Wolff said. "Suddenly the pace was gone and on the contrary Red Bull was somehow rising again with Ricciardo and Verstappen, which was entertaining for us to watch.
“First of all it will be very important to get off the line well. As you know at this track it is extremely difficult to overtake so rather than to play it out over strategy we would like to have a clean getaway.
"Red Bull on the qualifying laps had quite some pace and their long runs looked good [on Friday] so let’s see. I think pace-wise we should be looking OK but it all depends on the getaway at the start.”
With Red Bull looking strong in the final sector, Wolff says Mercedes should be praised for being quick throughout the circuit which shows it is not just the power unit which leads to its performance.
“I think the number one strength of our car means that in the third sector, where we have been performing very well in testing and during the race weekend... but I think we have just the right mix between a very effective power unit and a good chassis.
"There haven’t been any weaknesses around Barcelona, even the fast corners which have been Red Bull territory, we are looking decent against them so I would say that it is the package that makes us good looking. Obviously the guys have got it really right in setting up the car in the best possible way because when the temperatures rose our car seemed to be just hitting the sweet spot.”
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