Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the conclusion to Lewis Hamilton’s rookie campaign in 2007 acts as a reminder that the operation cannot afford to relax in this year’s Formula 1 title fight.
Hamilton, then driving for McLaren, entered the penultimate round of the campaign 17 points clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, back when 10 points was on offer for a victory.
Raikkonen went on to snatch the championship by a single point through back-to-back wins while Hamilton followed up a retirement with a low-key seventh, and finished runner-up.
Hamilton holds a 50-point advantage over Sebastian Vettel with five races remaining, including Sunday’s 53-lap Grand Prix in Japan, in effect giving him a two-race buffer over his opponent.
Hamilton will also have track advantage after he qualified on pole, with Vettel starting eighth after a session in which he and Ferrari made errors.
“2007, two races to go, 45 points – in today’s points – and he lost the championship,” said Wolff.
“Would anybody have thought you could lose 45 points in two races? Impossible.
“Racing happens on Sunday and the quickest car doesn’t necessarily win.
“We had the moment in the summer when we weren’t the quickest car and we scored some victories.
“I wouldn’t want to take the foot off the pedal because a DNF in a freak race and it’s all vanished. So our approach hasn’t changed.”
Mercedes and Ferrari were locked in a tight battle for much of the campaign but Hamilton’s pole position marked Mercedes’ third in a row, as it again enjoyed a comfortable advantage.
Wolff put the progress down to tyre understanding it gained in its defeat by Ferrari when Formula 1 returned from its summer break in Belgium.
“Every race since Spa we have brought an upgrade onto the car,” he said.
“Every millisecond adds up to a more considerable amount of pace and we have been able to translate that into real track performance.
“Sometimes wind tunnel data or any kind of data that you are trying to extrapolate doesn’t translate into the equal amount or expected amount of lap time, but in these races it has.
“[But] if you look at Singapore, no development would have brought 1.5s.
“What brought the difference was the understanding of how to run the tyres because they are the single largest denominator and this is an exercise where we have invested a lot of time and Spa, Turns 17, 18 and La Source explained why.”
