“We really didn’t understand it”: Mercedes boss insists on making the ‘right decisions’ this year after season’s blunder

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admits they have lost time in the process of getting their concept to work, while their rivals have developed further. Speaking to Sportskeeda ahead of the Bahrain GP, the Austrian acknowledged it was time they reevaluated the course of direction with the development of their car.

Asked by Sportskeeda if they had lost time in the process of improving their car concept while their rivals stepped into the game, Wolff said:

“Yes definitely, testing was not clean, we had big oscillations in performance. We did not understand it. I think we had unlocked some potential yesterday that we’ve seen today. The gaps are not huge. But because the top cars are so close to each other, between three four teams. Aston Martin now stands up and down but that can change a lot. Definitely every day counts, losing these days, it will be difficult to catch up and therefore we need to take the right precise decisions now in order to set the sails in the right direction.”

While Mercedes spent the majority of their 2022 season solving their performance woes with the W13, their rivals Red Bull and Ferrari managed to develop their concepts and improve their performances. Acknowledging that they have lost time, Wolff believes they cannot afford to lose any more with the development of the W14. He felt it was time the team took a call on their current design philosophy. Wolff feels their car is just not good enough compared to their rivals, given that the competition between the top three and four teams is so close.

However, their customer team Aston Martin showed competitive pace and dominated the weekend in the practice sessions, and definitely looked more competitive than them. The Silverstone camp uses the same gearbox, powertrain and rear suspension as Mercedes, but has managed to be as competitive as Red Bull. Wolff believes it is at top speed that they lose maximum performance compared to their rivals.

On whether Aston Martin’s concept had answers to their performance woes, Wolff said:

“They gained two seconds in half a year, and their car is half ours from the engine, gearbox and the rear suspension. They use the same wind tunnel, so there are a lot of parallels. We just need to acknowledge that they’ve done an outstanding job. If it was mechanical or suspension [weakness] then Aston Martin should have it too. The point is we’re losing it in the high speed. It’s Turns 5/6/7. This is pretty much the only place where we’re losing large chunks of time. We are okay in the other corners, we are okay on the straight.”

Toto Wolff admits the W14 is not competitive and Mercedes need to take a new direction

Admitting that they have almost lost faith in the concept of their current car, Wolff feels the team will have to discuss what can be changed to make the car competitive. Hinting that they might consider a different design philosophy, the Mercedes boss suggested that they need to have a car that helps them win and target podiums.

Commenting on the Mercedes W14 and its potential, Wolff said:

“I don’t think that this package is going to be competitive eventually. We gave it our best shot all over the winter, and now we just need to all regroup and sit down with the engineers, who are totally not dogmatic about anything. There are no holy cows and we need to decide what is the development direction that we want to pursue in order to be competitive to win races.”

Rolling out to the grid for the first time in 2023.

Rolling out to the grid for the first time in 2023. ???? https://t.co/cPy14c1dWj

Leading on from Sportskeeda’s question, when he was quizzed about the direction they wanted to take, the Mercedes chief said:

“It’s the whole development of the car. We are finding good downforce in the tunnel, and we’ve found good downforce in the tunnel since many months. But we have got to look at how we can optimise it in a way where maybe we find more of that. What I really enjoy is working in the team and discovering that, and I said it last year, sometimes it’s important for the long-term to get it wrong. I trust every millimetre to the engineers and we got the physics wrong. Now we need to correct it because there’s another three years of the regulations to go.”

Without mentioning whether they were switching entirely to a new car concept midway through, the Mercedes chief hinted at needing a change of direction with their car design and philosophy. With budget caps in place, developing two concepts simultaneously could become an expensive affair. However, Wolff did clarify that they needed to overview the whole development of their car to a large extent. While porpoising is a story of the past, optimizing performance from the W14 is an area they are struggling with.