Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is hoping Ferrari can continue to give Max Verstappen “a hard time” during the Italian Grand Prix following the Scuderia’s superb performance in qualifying.
From the abysmal outing in the Dutch GP a week ago where the maximum downforce configuration of Zandvoort underlined the weaknesses of the SF-23, the car has shone in low-downforce spec around Monza’s ‘Temple of Speed’.
In front of the adoring Tifosi, Carlos Sainz secured pole position, with team-mate Charles Leclerc third on the grid, sandwiched either side of Verstappen who has his sights set on a record-breaking 10th consecutive victory.
The concern for all Ferrari fans, however, is the suggestion the car’s race pace is lacking compared to the all-conquering RB19, and that Verstappen will breeze by at some stage en route to claiming another place in the record books.
“It’s quite interesting because when you look at the weekend in the Netherlands, and the high downforce weekends, they’re not very competitive,” assessed Wolff on Ferrari.
“And then you come here and they are giving it a big blast and giving Verstappen a run for his money.
“Whether they can really translate that into race pace, or into pace over the whole race, needs to be seen.
“For me, Verstappen is still the favourite because overall the car has just been so good and he has been faultless.
“But it would be good for Formula 1 if they give him a hard time, and somebody else winning in Monza, if it can’t be us, then it should be the Ferrari.”
Mercedes has at least one car in the fight after George Russell qualified fourth – team-mate Lewis Hamilton starts four places further back – albeit he was four-tenths of a second slower than Sainz.
The W14 has proven to be one of the slowest on the straights, which is likely to prove problematic for both Russell and Hamilton in the race.
“The car is just too draggy for this kind of high speed,” assessed Wolff.
“With high-speed race tracks, when you look at the top speeds – and I’ve looked at the sheet and we’re at the bottom end pretty much everywhere – you can still be high drag, not fast on the straight, and pull out a good lap time.
“But overall, generally, we have been too draggy for Monza, definitely.”
Remarkably, though, the performance of the car this year is in stark contrast to a year ago at this circuit.
Leclerc qualified on pole position 12 months ago with a lap time of one minute 20.161secs, with the quickest Mercedes of Hamilton a staggering 1.363s adrift.
On this occasion, Sainz was slower than Leclerc with his pole lap, posting a 1:20.294s, with Russell 0.377s back, representing a gain of a second year on year.
In many respects, the weekend to date for Mercedes has been above expectations.
“We were 1.3 seconds off last year, and we knew that low downforce wouldn’t suit us (this year) after Spa, also in Baku,” said Wolff.
“The car should be quick everywhere but these were the problematic tracks for us, and considering the time gap (at Monza) from our quicker car to the front guys, I think we have more reason to be semi-satisfied.”
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