Formula 1: Toto Wolff confident Mercedes have the fastest car

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport have won just three of the 10 races that have been contested in the 2018 Formula 1 season so far. But Toto Wolff is confident that they still have the fastest car.

The three victories of four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton so far in 2018 are the only three victories that have been earned by Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport with 10 of the 21 races on the 2018 schedule in the books.

After a four-year run of dominance during which their drivers secured four driver championships and they secured four constructor championships and 63 victories in 79 races, it appears as though Mercedes’ reign atop Formula 1 is over.

However, Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff believes that while Hamilton sits in second place in the driver standings eight points (151 to 143) behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and the team sit in second in the constructor standings 20 points (287 to 267) behind Ferrari, they still have the fastest car on the grid.

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In the last three races, which were the three races of Formula 1’s first triple header, Mercedes were outscored by Ferrari by 37 points (98 to 61), and they were outscored by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing by four points (65 to 61).

Despite the fact that they claimed the pole positions for all three of those races, they won just one of them, as Hamilton won the French Grand Prix. Vettel won the British Grand Prix and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix.

While Mercedes have certainly left a bunch of points on the table so far this season, especially in the last three races, do they really still have the fastest car on the grid even though they are tied with Red Bull Racing with three victories in 2018 and they trail Ferrari with four?

Here is what Wolff had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“We didn’t score as many points in the triple-header as we had hoped for. A lot of that was down to our own mistakes. However, there is a silver lining to this — while we didn’t maximise on points, we did bring the quickest car to all three races.“Hockenheim will mark the halfway point of the 2018 season. We’ve had a decent first half – on the one hand, we’ve left points on the table and had to do damage limitation more often than we would have wanted. On the other hand, we still scored a good amount of points, both drivers have shown strong performances and we have a fast car.“So there are many reasons why we’re looking forward to the second half of the 2018 season; we’re hungry, ambitious and want to kick on from here.”"

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Do you believe that Mercedes will up their game in the second half of the 2018 Formula 1 season to the point where they will be able to secure their fifth consecutive constructor championship and have one of their drivers earn the team’s fifth consecutive driver championship? Do they really have the fastest car on the grid?

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