Alpine driver Esteban Ocon crashing out of the pits triggered a virtual safety car on lap 44 of 62 at Marina Bay. This created a window for both Mercedes drivers to stop for medium tires.
This gave them a pace advantage late in the race in a bid to close in and overtake eventual winner Carlos Sainz and runner-up Lando Norris, who were nursing the aging Pirellis hard.
But Ferrari driver Sainz was confident to give Norris DRS the nod to help the McLaren driver defend against the pursuing Mercedes, before George Russell crashed out on the final lap to hand third place to Lewis Hamilton.
Although the team ultimately failed, Wolff said he “loved the call” of the strategists and drivers and that the risk of winning the race was worth repeating “every day of the week.”
“We tried to win and we couldn’t,” said the Austrian. “The good thing is I like the call from the pilot and the strategy team to say, ‘We’re going.
“Worst case scenario was second and fifth. Best case scenario we win or first and second. And our plan showed that at times.”
He added: “I think it was the right decision, we would have finished P2, P5 – maybe P2, P4, and we wanted to win the race.
“So we took the risk and I would do it again every day of the week.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The team was guided through pre-race strategy simulations based on possible virtual and full safety car timings.
Wolff believed that these performances would boost Mercedes since “everything is not bad” with the W14, a machine he described throughout the weekend as a “surprise box”.
He continued: “Overall, I’m happy with the performance. I’m happy with the way the car handled all weekend, and I think we did our best.”
“I think that’s the positive… we were really strong here, we could have won the race.
“We could have finished first and second on merit and that’s what we have to take from here and it will clearly energize us even more because, on this particular track, we were strong.
“It’s not all bad. But then you see on the planner, P1 and P2 come up at times and you think ‘This could have been an amazing day’ and it’s not.
“But I’d rather just look at the positives from this weekend and go home saying ‘it was a good weekend’.”
Alpine driver Esteban Ocon crashing out of the pits triggered a virtual safety car on lap 44 of 62 at Marina Bay. This created a window for both Mercedes drivers to stop for medium tires.
This gave them a pace advantage late in the race in a bid to close in and overtake eventual winner Carlos Sainz and runner-up Lando Norris, who were nursing the aging Pirellis hard.
But Ferrari driver Sainz was confident to give Norris DRS the nod to help the McLaren driver defend against the pursuing Mercedes, before George Russell crashed out on the final lap to hand third place to Lewis Hamilton.
Although the team ultimately failed, Wolff said he “loved the call” of the strategists and drivers and that the risk of winning the race was worth repeating “every day of the week.”
“We tried to win and we couldn’t,” said the Austrian. “The good thing is I like the call from the pilot and the strategy team to say, ‘We’re going.
“Worst case scenario was second and fifth. Best case scenario we win or first and second. And our plan showed that at times.”
He added: “I think it was the right decision, we would have finished P2, P5 – maybe P2, P4, and we wanted to win the race.
“So we took the risk and I would do it again every day of the week.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The team was guided through pre-race strategy simulations based on possible virtual and full safety car timings.
Wolff believed that these performances would boost Mercedes since “everything is not bad” with the W14, a machine he described throughout the weekend as a “surprise box”.
He continued: “Overall, I’m happy with the performance. I’m happy with the way the car handled all weekend, and I think we did our best.”
“I think that’s the positive… we were really strong here, we could have won the race.
“We could have finished first and second on merit and that’s what we have to take from here and it will clearly energize us even more because, on this particular track, we were strong.
“It’s not all bad. But then you see on the planner, P1 and P2 come up at times and you think ‘This could have been an amazing day’ and it’s not.
“But I’d rather just look at the positives from this weekend and go home saying ‘it was a good weekend’.”
