Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted that it’s very unlikely that the Silver Arrows will be able to make as big a step forwards as McLaren have done, due to the Germans being more “restricted”.
McLaren’s recent upgrades at the Austrian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix saw them leapfrog several teams in the pecking order, most notably, Mercedes.
The Woking-based team recently finished second and fourth at Silverstone, whilst Mercedes claimed third and fifth.
Whether McLaren are quicker than Mercedes again this weekend in Hungary remains to be seen; however, Wolff has noted that making as big an improvement as their customer team will be “difficult”.
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Whilst Mercedes have introduced several upgrades this season, none of them have been as impactful as McLaren’s, with Wolff noting that their customer team can do more due to having more time in the wind tunnel.
“I think we are restricted by the cost cap and by the relative less amount in wind tunnel,” Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.com.
“McLaren finished further back into championship – they were fifth or sixth – so they carry over more winter tunnel allocation and that’s why it’s going to difficult.
“Do I believe that we have upgrades in there that got a fundamental change the car? I don’t believe so.
“But we have a few small steps that will come and you can see that if you find two or three tenths it puts you in a different position on the on the grid.”
The big question now is if McLaren are quick at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a venue considerably different to the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.
If McLaren are strong at the Hungaroring then they could be the side to defeat Red Bull remarkably.
“We need to see whether they can repeat that performance in Budapest, which is obviously the opposite and what you what you need,” Wolff said.
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“But this sport is about margin of gains and if you have 20% more wind tunnel time allocation we gain two seconds over a year, that means four tenths.
“So if you have that four tenths or five tenths in additional performance, that’s always going to help.
“But still you need to design it the right way and to have the right innovation and where its to put on the card needs to correlate with the [wind] tunnel and the simulation.”