Toto Wolff
The British Grand Prix is one of the highlights of any Formula One season. It’s a combination of the history of the circuit, the knowledge and racing culture of the fans, unpredictable weather conditions and, of course, the unique feeling of racing just a few kilometres from our factories.
All of our team-mates who don’t normally travel to the races will have the chance to come and see the cars in action on Friday and that is a very special moment of our year. It gives every team member the connection to what we do in the most powerful way.
The entire weekend is like a celebration of motorsport in the UK and of course also a celebration of the driver who is in my view the country’s greatest ever F1 talent, Lewis. He enjoys a very special relationship with the fans at Silverstone and has a fantastic record there in recent years.
From the team’s perspective, we come to Silverstone with a feeling of unfinished business and needing to put things right, even though we took the win in Austria. In both Baku and Spielberg, we left points on the table that were there for the taking because of car problems that had nothing to do with our drivers. We are determined to make sure that doesn’t happen in Silverstone.
The determination for Lewis to fight back with a strong performance this weekend needs no more explanation. Things could have been a lot worse at the last two races – but his performance and pace deserved a lot better. He has handled the setbacks with the calmness and maturity we have come to expect from him. Lewis is doing the job in a pretty perfect way right now and if he keeps doing that, the results will follow.
Valtteri keeps getting stronger with every race. After the fightback in Baku, he just got on with the job in a cool and collected way in Austria. He knew we needed pole position and the win; he kept his feet on the ground, produced the start of his life and delivered. He’s taking it step by step, concentrating on the things in his control that make the difference, and the results speak for themselves.
Silverstone is a circuit that we hope will suit our car. It is a very different challenge to the most recent tracks, with its sweeping corners putting the emphasis on aerodynamic efficiency. It will be an awesome sight to see these 2017 cars defying the laws of physics in the fast corners and we are all excited to see that.
It’s clear that as a team, we need to give the drivers the right platform to express their talents – and that means delivering on our own high standards of performance and reliability. We are absolutely capable of both and we need to turn that capability into points this weekend.