Wolff Feels Mercedes Gets 'Mercy' At The Beginning Of Season

Tim Mercedes (Twitter @MercedesAMGF1)

JAKARTA - Team head Toto Wolff feels that Mercedes has received "mercy" from its rivals so that it is now leading the riders' and constructors' standings despite being overwhelmed by the start of the 2021 Formula 1 championship season.

Mercedes is facing the Red Bull team's strongest early-season appearance since the turbo-hybrid engine era began.

Lewis Hamilton surprisingly and controversially claimed victory in the season opener in Bahrain, with teammate Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.

Hamilton then took pole position at Imola, before going wide to gravel and finishing runner-up behind Red Bull champion Max Verstappen.

The results of the two opening series brought Mercedes to the top of the constructors' standings with 60 points, seven points ahead of Red Bull, while Hamilton beat Verstappen with 44-43 points.

"Going (from Imola) to lead second (standings) of the championship is almost a pity, because our rivals did not maximize the opportunities we gave them," Wolff said as quoted by Antara on Mercedes' official website, Tuesday.

"And this proves the very challenging season that is ahead of us and how quickly things can turn around in Formula 1."

Previously, Wolff admitted that Mercedes was no longer dominant in qualifying as when Hamilton took pole position at Imola with a margin of 0.035 seconds from Red Bull's Sergio Perez, with Verstappen just 0.052 seconds adrift in third place.

Mercedes will anticipate the threat of Red Bull in the third race of the season in Portugal this weekend.

However, Wolff is not only wary of Red Bull, because McLaren and Ferrari have also experienced an increase in performance this season.

"Last year was our first race in Portimao," said Wolff.

"We look forward to another tough fight with Red Bull, and both McLaren and Ferrari can be involved as well.

"This is an exciting and bumpy track and is producing great racing in 2020.

"We saw that in qualifying and the opening laps it was not easy to make the tires work well.

"This is a fairly new circuit for everyone, which will be interesting and this means we will learn everything over the weekend.

Last year Mercedes finished 1-2 at Portimao, where Hamilton claimed his 92nd career win while breaking the all-time winning record in F1, and Verstappen completed the podium after finishing third more than 30 seconds later.