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F1 tyres most important part of performance says Wolff

12:19, 13 Jul 2018

byBobby Vincent

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes that Pirelli's F1 tyres are the "single most important denominator of performance" this season.

Mercedes' struggle from last season of managing their tyre selection compared to fierce rivals Red Bull and Ferrari has seemingly continued into this season, most noticeably on Pirelli's softest compounds.

The Silver Arrows driver Lewis Hamilton picked up his fourth pole position of the season by just 0.044s last weekend, but this is not much compared to recent seasons on a track that has been heavily dominated by Mercedes in recent season.

Wolff believes that the blistering heat at Silverstone at the weekend had an impact on the performance of the tyres.

"I think what we've seen this season is a little bit of a different pattern," Wolff explained to Crash.net.

"Everybody brings updates to every race and there is never a silver bullet that provides you with three tenths or four tenths, which was the difference between us an Ferrari (in 2017 British GP qualifying).

"It is just a constant learning of the tyre which is the single most important denominator of performance. You get it right and you get it wrong. I believe that if we would have had 10 degrees less temperature (on Saturday), maybe we would have had a bigger gap and maybe the same (on race day)."

Wolff also said he is keen for his team to get a better knowledge of Pirelli's latest range of tyres as soon as possible to try and keep up with Ferrari in the title battle, that they are trailing currently.

"It is what it is and we just need to learn, understand and just try to get in control of the tyres in the best possible way," Wolff said.

"I would have loved for us to build a gap in Austria, Montreal and Silverstone because we lose some in Hungary and we lose some in Singapore. But we will look at it now and try to fight and score as many points as possible."