Mercedes could split strategies against Ferrari's threat

Hamilton will begin his home race in pole position, but after a mistake at the end of his Q3 turn, Bottas will start fourth, behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

With Red Bull Looking weaker than in recent races, Mercedes can focus on fighting one opponent instead of two.

"We are going to make a total attack," said Wolff. "And part of that could be two different strategies and try to be aggressive, if we can stay ahead, I think that Lewis at Silverstone is a safe bet, but obviously, if they happen to you at the beginning or the first turn, then all

Bottas agreed that the team might have to try something to pass the Ferrari.

"Yes, we absolutely have to find a way," said the Finn. "In every race it will be extremely important for us to try to score more points than Ferrari and I think I'm sixth in the drivers standings, so I'm sure I have to start adding those points more often. "

" I think for Lewis, if he gets a good distance, then it will be easier, but we'll see.

Bottas suggests that Mercedes is in a stronger position in terms of tires than its main rival, Ferrari

"We saw that they were suffering from blisters (on Fridays) , and we did not do it, "he added." But (Sunday) is a new day and we're going to see longer rounds than in free 2, so there's still a lot of interrogation points. "

" It's going to be a very tight race with Ferrari, and it will depend a lot on who can take care of the tires and not overheat or create too much blisters. "

Wolff believes that bulbs will not be a big problem for Mercedes as in Austria last weekend, but stressed that it was important that Hamilton in advance to give the pace and protect their tires.

"The heat is not what our car likes," he admitted. "And you can see the difference in performance between the FP3 and the classification, with track temperatures above 10ºC , the same is expected for today, so it could be a difficult race for all of us. "We saw blisters in the Ferrari. (Friday), its running was not spectacular, ours was a bit better. "

" I think it's pretty much where you end up after the first round, if you're able to handle everything from the front. you have to attack you are obviously under threat of degradation or more blisters than the head car. "

" You can see that in Red Bull, the car that was leading with Max (Verstappen) in Austria, they managed their pace and they had no problem, and the car who attacked (Daniel Ricciardo) had big blisters, being an identical car, everything is easier if you control the front "