The Brackley-based team endured a tricky campaign with their W13, which suffered badly from porpoising and failed to deliver enough performance to match Red Bull and Ferrari.
The team’s chances of a quick recovery were further hampered by the cost cap, which meant they could not afford to make any changes to their current challenger mid-season, which she says , would have made it faster.
But with budgets reset for next year and the team now having a much better understanding of the W13’s shortcomings, Mercedes is optimistic about the level of progress it will achieve with its W14.
Asked by Autosport where Mercedes are at with their understanding of the 2023 car, team boss Toto Wolff said: “Running the ship in this industry is a bit like a tanker.
“You have to first understand what the root cause of your non-performance is. And then you have to peel back the different skins: what’s the first layer? What’s the second layer? Are we really above all the Questions ?
“And the answer is no, we’re not. But I think a lot of the performance that we’re missing, we’ve discovered.
“It’s not something we can change this year. These are decisions we’ve made for next year.
“But I’m not 100% sure to say here next year that we will be fighting for the world championship. The goal is, the expectation is, but there is still work to be done.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Mercedes came close to their second pole position of the season in Singapore, as Lewis Hamilton missed first place at Marina Bay on Saturday by 0.054 seconds.
But despite being in the fight up front, Wolff downplayed the performance as a sign of the team’s progress and instead suggested the result was simply the result of Hamilton’s brilliance.
“It was his place, and I think it wasn’t that easy to drive the car,” Wolff said. “It’s been tough all year. So I always find myself thinking: we fought for pole position, that’s good, because we’ve been used to it in recent years. But actually, I think he just took the car out.
“It was on the razor’s edge. And I think if he goes around then we are on pole, but I think we can be very happy with the performance.
“It’s one of the tracks that, as our simulations said, should suit us better, apart from the bumps. And that was exactly the feedback from the driver: that the handling is really bad, the car was too steep.
“But the aero seems to work within the bandwidth, so we’re looking better than a lot of other circuits.
The Brackley-based team endured a tricky campaign with their W13, which suffered badly from porpoising and failed to deliver enough performance to match Red Bull and Ferrari.
The team’s chances of a quick recovery were further hampered by the cost cap, which meant they could not afford to make any changes to their current challenger mid-season, which she says , would have made it faster.
But with budgets reset for next year and the team now having a much better understanding of the W13’s shortcomings, Mercedes is optimistic about the level of progress it will achieve with its W14.
Asked by Autosport where Mercedes are at with their understanding of the 2023 car, team boss Toto Wolff said: “Running the ship in this industry is a bit like a tanker.
“You have to first understand what the root cause of your non-performance is. And then you have to peel back the different skins: what’s the first layer? What’s the second layer? Are we really above all the Questions ?
“And the answer is no, we’re not. But I think a lot of the performance that we’re missing, we’ve discovered.
“It’s not something we can change this year. These are decisions we’ve made for next year.
“But I’m not 100% sure to say here next year that we will be fighting for the world championship. The goal is, the expectation is, but there is still work to be done.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Mercedes came close to their second pole position of the season in Singapore, as Lewis Hamilton missed first place at Marina Bay on Saturday by 0.054 seconds.
But despite being in the fight up front, Wolff downplayed the performance as a sign of the team’s progress and instead suggested the result was simply the result of Hamilton’s brilliance.
“It was his place, and I think it wasn’t that easy to drive the car,” Wolff said. “It’s been tough all year. So I always find myself thinking: we fought for pole position, that’s good, because we’ve been used to it in recent years. But actually, I think he just took the car out.
“It was on the razor’s edge. And I think if he goes around then we are on pole, but I think we can be very happy with the performance.
“It’s one of the tracks that, as our simulations said, should suit us better, apart from the bumps. And that was exactly the feedback from the driver: that the handling is really bad, the car was too steep.
“But the aero seems to work within the bandwidth, so we’re looking better than a lot of other circuits.