Mercedes ready for Monza: 'The battle is only going to get more intense'

After two consecutive victories for Max Verstappen, Mercedes have to be careful not to get defeated again. In the second half of the season, the Dutchman has come into his own, and Toto Wolff and his team will want to put an end to that now.

Pressure on Mercedes

The 2021 Formula One season is mostly exciting because of a special title fight between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes. Red Bull have finally managed to build a car that can win on a variety of tracks, and that puts Verstappen in immediate contention. He's launching an attack on Lewis Hamilton this year, but the latter and his team won't give up easily.

"We have nine races to go in this Championship fight and the battle is only going to get more intense, but our mission is clear. Last time out at Zandvoort, we simply didn't put all the pieces together - we took some risks and gave it our best shot, but it just wasn't enough. A double podium brought us solid and useful points, extending our constructors' championship advantage, but we know we need to be consistently bringing our A-game if we want to finish this season on top," Wolff said in a Mercedes press release.

Racing for the Tifosi

"It's also the second race weekend with the Sprint Qualifying format, so that'll add some extra spice to the mix, too. We learned lessons on the new format at Silverstone and look forward to bringing that knowledge with us into this weekend."

"The atmosphere at Zandvoort was incredible, and to have so many passionate fans engaged in this sport is great to see. While we won't have as many fans at Monza, I'm sure the atmosphere will still be great and this track always delivers thrilling F1 races, so we look set for another fun weekend of on-track action," concluded the Mercedes team boss.