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Wolff: We need to extract every bit of performance to win

11:55, 27 Mar 2019

byJake Williams-Smith

Toto Wolff says Mercedes will need to extract the maximum from their car in order to win the Bahrain Grand Prix.

In the opening round of the 2019 season, Mercedes surprised everyone including themselves with Valtteri Bottas taking a dominant win after Ferrari had looked fastest by a comfortable margin during winter testing.

However, Wolff is under no illusions that the race in Bahrain will be as simple as it was in Melbourne and insists that Mercedes will need to be at the top of its game to take another win in the tricky desert conditions.

“We will see a very different race in Bahrain, where the weekend presents unique challenges, especially the change in conditions between the sessions,” said Wolff.

“FP1 and FP3 take place in the middle of the day when both the air and the track can be very hot; FP2, Qualifying and the Race on the other hand are held in the evening in considerably cooler temperatures.

“These temperature swings make it very tricky to set up the car and find the right configuration for the sessions that really count.

“We need to extract every bit of performance from our package and keep on working hard to improve the car over the weekend to be competitive. We’ve had some great racing in recent years in Bahrain, so I’m looking forward to an exciting weekend.”