Toto Wolff: "Ferrari switched focus to 2017 too early"

Executive Director of Mercedes Toto Wolff believes that Ferrari switched their plans to 2017 too early, which allowed Red Bull Racing to catch up.

Ferrari came into the season with the hope of challenging Mercedes for the constructers title, but seem of fallen further behind and are now trying to keep Red Bull at bay. The Maranello outfit are so far without a win this season, having won two at this point in the season last year.

"I don’t think you can write Ferrari off, they have clearly had a tough time most recently. I think [Ferrari] switched off very early to focus on 2017.”

“Never underestimate a team with so much resources and so much passion,” warned Wolff.

“We need to be fair sportsmen and Formula 1 lives because of the great battles between drivers and teams. Ferrari is a great brand with capable people and it would have been good fun to fight it out on track.”

“For whatever reason they have not been able in the most recent races to reach the levels they expected to perform and we expect to perform, but I can’t really look into it in detail and I don’t know the reasons.”

“For me, a battle with Ferrari would be great for F1 and, even if this sounds a little bit absurd, I was really looking forward to it and I hope they find their strength again and we fight it out on track,” added Wolff.

 

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