Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has implored his drivers to keep scoring points as the team lies as favourites to finish second in Formula 1‘s Constructors’ Championship.
The German marque cemented its place as ‘best of the rest’ in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, secured by Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s second-place finish, supplemented by George Russell in fifth.
In doing so, the team made good on Red Bull’s solitary top-10 finish from Max Verstappen’s third place, and capitalised strongly on Ferrari’s double-DNF.
It leaves the Brackley-based squad 32 points ahead of Red Bull and 36 ahead of Ferrari with just three races left to run, starting with this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
After the team’s successful Brazilian jaunt, Wolff warned that Ferrari’s nightmarish weekend at Interlagos serves as a warning that the job is not yet done.
“For the Ferraris, we need to keep both feet on the ground,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“You can see that you can have a wipe-out weekend like the Ferraris had, and from one moment to the other, you lose 30 points.
“So, continue to work, score the points in the next coming races, and then that’s the end.”
It was a somewhat unusual weekend for Mercedes in that sense that Russell has, often through sheer experience, been the faster of the two cars this year.
But in Sao Paulo, Antonelli was consistently faster, finishing second in qualifying for and in the Sprint Race and full Grand Prix.
Wolff acknowledged that the Brit put up a valiant display in defending Oscar Piastri, who had fallen behind after receiving a 10-second penalty for punting Antonelli after the Virtual Safety Car restart.
“Both of them fighting a faster car from behind and holding on to it,” he said. “That kind of rounded it up for us to see that, how they were able to fight.”
READ MORE – Why Mercedes never doubted Kimi Antonelli would come good
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