Wolff feels Red Bull's heat: 'We're under no illusions'

Spectacular beginning

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team boss, is also looking forward to the battle between Hamilton and Verstappen. "The 2021 F1 season has certainly started in spectacular style," said Wolff on the website of Mercedes. "It was an encouraging first race, coming away from Bahrain with a double podium, and hopefully the duel in the desert between us and Red Bull is a sign of what lies ahead for us this year."

Not an easy season

Hamilton won the first race of the season in his Mercedes, but it wasn't easy. Wolff sees that too."We may have won the first round, but we are under no illusions that this is going to be an easy season."

According to Wolff, there is still a lot of work to do for Mercedes and Red Bull is the team to beat at the moment. "The car still lacks speed on a single lap and Red Bull seems to have an edge at the moment. We are pushing hard to close the gap, and this is a challenge we are enjoying."

Iconic circuit

Imola is the setting for the second Grand Prix of the season this weekend, a race Wolff is very much looking forward to. "Imola is such a historic and iconic venue, and it's a circuit the drivers really enjoy, with its twisty nature, high speeds and variety of corners. It's a fairly narrow track, which makes overtaking more difficult, but this puts more emphasis on strategy and makes qualifying even more crucial."

Last year, Formula One returned to Imola after 14 years, thanks to the calendar being scrambled by the corona pandemic. "We all enjoyed our return to Imola in 2020 and it was made even more special by the fact that we secured our seventh constructors' championship that weekend. We look forward to being there again this weekend and seeing what the 2021 race has in store!"