Wolff: 'Podium thanks to others' misfortune, but reliability is crucial'

For the Mercedes team, the Bahrain Grand Prix was all about damage limitation, and they succeeded - partly due to Red Bull Racing's double retirement. Toto Wolff emphasizes that his team is currently the "third team on the grid" but at the same time sees that the W13 has potential.

According to the Mercedes boss, his team has improved on the winter test in Bahrain, where it was plagued by porpoising. Since then the German racing team has had great difficulty in getting rid of the problem without having to compromise on speed.

Consequently, during the opening weekend in Bahrain, Mercedes could not keep up with the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. "We were clearly third quickest behind Ferrari and Red Bull," Wolff notes in a press release. "We know the W13 has potential, and we need to continue learning, find out how to unlock it, and maximise our opportunities for points in the meantime."

Despite Mercedes' disappointing performance, an unexpected podium finish was in the cards due to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez 's crashes. "We scored the maximum points we could and more than we were expecting to. That's partly down to others' misfortune but reliability has always been a crucial factor in Formula 1," Wolff said.