F1 News: Mercedes' Engine Not The Only Weakness Against Ferrari, Wolff Says

Ferrari’s surge to become the fastest car on the grid has certainly caught Mercedes by surprise, but team principal Toto Wolff is the first to admit that they are trailing their rivals when it comes to outright performance, but not only in the power department.

It is widely believed that the Italian team now have the best car on the grid, and they showcased it with aplomb at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory over title rival Lewis Hamilton after overtaking him in the opening lap of the race.

Ferrari were much faster than the Mercedes on the straights and Hamilton suggested they have something special in their power unit that is helping them outperform the Mercedes, who have had the best engine on the grid for the last four seasons.

Since the Austrian Grand Prix, the Scuderia Ferrari power unit has been making consistent gains on the Mercedes engine and is now generating more power. However, Wolff insists it is not the only weakness the Silver Arrows team have going into the final eight races of the season.

The Austrian believes apart from the power deficit, the Mercedes car is also struggling in the slow speed turns and the traction coming out of corners. He believes they are the two main weaknesses at the moment.

"When I look at the race I see many deficits,” Wolff said, as quoted on Autosport. "We are a strong team but there are deficits that are obvious and cause us not to perform as we expect."

"You can see the deficits. It is the slow speed, and it is the traction. This is what I would summarise as the main weaknesses at the moment. Plus clearly, compared to the Ferraris and the Red Bulls and the Force Indias, [we were] the car that was cooking the tyres the most,” he added.

Mercedes and Ferrari introduced their spec 3 engines at the Belgian Grand Prix, their final upgrade of the season. Wolff acknowledges the Italian team clearly have a slight advantage at the moment in terms of power output, but is confident that the reigning champions have the resources to close the gap without having to incur an engine penalty and bring a new power unit on board.

"It is all about understanding your power unit and calibrating, extracting all of the performance out of the software, the fuels, the oils and optimising the whole way you run the engine," he said. "That is something which doesn't involve the hardware and this is an ongoing process. So the answer is yes you can find performance."

"There is no silver bullet. We won't find any performance that is suddenly going to add three tenths to the car, or to the engine, and we disappear into the sunset," he added.

However, despite possessing the faster car, Ferrari still trail Mercedes in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship, but the Italian team are currently in the ascendency.

Mercedes will look to address the slide at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend with Autosport reporting that they will introduce a new aerodynamic upgrade.