Wolff's pessimistic verdict about Mercedes' Canadian GP chances

Mercedes had their best race of the season so far last time out at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell securing a double podium behind Max Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull. 

It came a week after the eight-time constructors’ world champions debuted a major upgrade package in Monaco but Mercedes team principal Wolff has downplayed hopes of a repeat performance in Montreal.  

"The result in Spain was a well-deserved reward for everyone's efforts at Brackley and Brixworth to bring our update package to the track,” Wolff said. “We were pleased with how it performed, and it will provide a new baseline for us to build from. 

"But we must also manage our expectations. It was a circuit that suited our car, and we should expect our direct competitors to be stronger in the next races. The gap to Red Bull is large and it will take lots of hard work to close that down. Nevertheless, we're up for the challenge.

"We now move on to Montreal. With its long straights and low-speed corners, it's not a track that we expect to suit our car as well as Barcelona did.

"No matter where the true pace of the car is this weekend, we will aim to maximise our result. The characteristics of the circuit will also provide further opportunity to learn about the W14 and feed into our development path.”

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said the team is anticipating a tight battle with the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Alpine. 

“We are thinking it will be more along the lines of some of the earlier races where we were definitely in the bunch with Ferrari, with Aston, and now Alpine look to have joined that group,” he explained. 

"But it's great racing there. It will be good fun and we are certainly going to be fighting to find every little bit of performance we can because the way the grid stacks up now you can be P2 or you can be P10, and there are only a few tenths in it.

"We are looking forward to more exciting racing but certainly we are aware that Canada is likely to be a bigger challenge than the Sunday we just had in Barcelona."