Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits Lewis Hamilton faces a "very difficult" task to recover from the back of the field in today's Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton is due to start from 21st on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps as a result of a number of power unit penalties, with three new power units introduced this weekend resulting in a grid drop of 55 places. With Nico Rosberg only taking pole position by 0.149s from Max Verstappen - and Kimi Raikkonen just 0.017s further back - Wolff admits the gaps show Hamilton is likely to have a tough race.
"At a certain stage, we needed to take it but, if you look at the gaps now, it is probably very difficult for him to recover to a good position," Wolff said. "So, in hindsight, if we would have known, which we didn’t, then Monza would maybe have been the better choice.
"But again I am 100% convinced, given the parameters and information we had before Spa, taking the engine penalty here, taking it early, getting a new engine into Lewis’ car early, was the right decision – but, if it’s hot, it’s going to be very difficult for him to recover to a sensible position."
However, Wolff does believe the grid looked closer due to Mercedes struggling to get its supersoft tyres to work as well as its rivals.
"We seem to struggle more than other teams with overheating and blistering. It’s odd because, on particular surfaces and particular circuits, the normal one-second gap from the soft to the supersoft doesn’t materialise because the supersoft just gives up.
"The drivers said that, after turn one, the rear was going on the supersoft, so our performance on the soft is what you would deem as normal, but we’re not able to extract more from the softer tyre because the tyre just gives up."
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