Wolff singles out one team to challenge Mercedes’ dominance soon

The Mercedes team principal, who weighed in on the performance gains of the Woking-based outfit through the Chinese Grand Prix weekend so far, noted the different decisions the Mercedes engine customer team has taken.

While casting a little uncertainty over what to expect from McLaren’s trajectory, he remains confident that the papaya-coloured team will soon be fighting at the front.

"Everybody has a different concept. Also, McLaren, without going into the details, have taken some decisions that are very different from ours when it comes, for example, to gear ratios or similar," Wolff explained to Sky F1.

"It could have been good. It’s a new car. It is the works teams that have a little bit of the nose ahead, but it's just a matter of time, because you see what the others are doing. You get the exact same hardware, you have the exact same software. But in that case, how do you simulate it? I have no doubt McLaren is just a formidable structure, and it won’t be long before they’re back in the fight at the front," the 54-year-old concluded.

The McLaren team has steadily improved on its showing last time out in Australia. At the Chinese Grand Prix, the Woking-based outfit had its drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, qualify in the top five for the Sprint race, an improvement on their performance in Australia.

Earlier, Norris shrugged off conversations about the Mercedes team hiding its information from customer teams regarding its power unit.

The reigning world champion explained that the performance gap currently being experienced is largely due to several customer teams still learning the intricacies of the Mercedes power unit.

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