Wolff not shocked: "That was because he ran into traffic"

"One thing is for sure, this is the end of summer!", Wolff joked about the rainy weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. Hamilton found himself back in eighteenth place, but that was because he had to abort his fastest lap. "Lewis' lap was compromised because he ran into traffic at the end. It was a bit of a hairy moment! But I think we are in okay shape, we need to learn a bit from the downforce levels. We ran two different ones on both cars."

In the first free practice, Hamilton drove with a relatively large amount of wing, while teammate Bottas' rear wing was particularly small. It earned the Finn first place. "The lap time was good, I'm not sure if this is the one we can run during the weekend, but good to have ran a back to back test. Lewis didn't put the lap in but was a little bit faster," the team boss said.

It is possible that Red Bull will take a grid penalty this weekend. It would make the weekend a little easier for Mercedes, but Wolff wants to stay focused on his own team above all else. "I'm not sure if they take the penalty ,I thought before maybe they can repair the Silverstone engine but in any case its tight with three engines this season. Something everyone needs to monitor whether you want to take a penalty just for extra power. Every engine is degrading, and you have a fresher one that has much more performance. If its tight, you have to have this discussion, but at the moment we're looking at finishing with three," he said of the German formation's plans.