Wolff: Vettel tough to beat if Ferrari matched strategy

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Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton would have struggled to beat Sebastian Vettel in the Canadian Grand Prix if Ferrari had not made an early pit stop to give up track position.

Vettel was leading in the opening laps but was called into the pits when the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed, coming in on lap 11. With Vettel putting on a set of supersoft tyres Ferrari immediately showed it was two-stopping and Mercedes switched to a one-stop strategy, with Hamilton going on to win.

Asked if Mercedes was planning on pitting under the VSC if Vettel stayed out, Wolff replied: “No we wouldn’t have done it.

"The two-stop strategy was the fastest strategy by a couple of seconds but it was clear that the Virtual Safety Car came a bit early and it was too early for us to really commit to the best possible two-stop. This is why we decided to stay out.”

And Wolff believes the performance difference between the Mercedes and Ferrari was not big enough for Hamilton to pass easily on track.

“Yes it would have been more difficult. You could see the top speed of the Red Bull and the Ferrari is pretty much where we are. So it’s what we’ve been saying all those years, just leave the rules alone and performance is going to merge.

"It’s happening right now, so it’s good that we’re changing the rules for next year! I think it would have been difficult, yes. He drove really well, the gap between the cars was too little today to really make a difference.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.