After winning eight consecutive constructors’ championships, Mercedes struggled to compete under the new technical regulations for 2022 as it struggled to overcome the porpoising problem with its car.
This left drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell unable to cope with Ferrari and Red Bull at the front of the pack as Mercedes scrambled to figure out the problem.
Mercedes F1 chief Wolff has always stressed the importance of learning from setbacks and difficult times as part of his management style.
But he has made no secret of how difficult it has been to deal with the team’s big emotional swings so far this season.
“The truth is it’s so painful and it’s so hard to live by your values and your doubts,” Wolff told Autosport in an interview looking back at Mercedes’ season so far.
“You swing from depression to exuberance and then the next day the other way around. And in a way that when you think nothing you’re doing is working, [it is] a bit of groundhog day.
“Then you take steps forward looking at things and finding out that they don’t work at all, and then you know what’s wrong, and you go the other way and it works.
“All the things I’ve preached, all the things you read about in books that it’s so hard, it’s so important to lose in order to prosper. It’s just been experienced in real life so far.
George Russell, Mercedes W13, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Drew Gibson / Motorsport Images
Mercedes have seen their level of performance improve over the season, leading to their current streak of six consecutive races with a car on the podium, including double podiums in France and Hungary.
Russell also managed to score a shock pole for Mercedes in Hungary, highlighting the progress he has made with the W13 car heading into the second half of the year.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ ground engineering director, told Autosport the team chose to snub short-term solutions to the porpoising problem, believing the longevity of the regulations meant they had to put up with the early season pain to ensure the issues were fully understood.
Asked if he agreed it was helpful to get through the pain in the short term, Wolff replied, “I wish I hadn’t been there.
“We managed to turn around. Some things are more trivial than you think. Other things were important to master [such as] porpoising, which we don’t have today.
“From a technical point of view, it was certainly valuable. But for all of us, from a human, professional point of view, it was very difficult to manage.
“Because if the best engineers don’t really understand why the data doesn’t match reality, it’s not easy.
“You’re lost. But it’s not the feeling of being completely lost. But you think, how long is it going to take to figure it out? Because we have a next season coming up. You’re like, ‘We need to get on top of that quickly because next season’s car needs to come out of the blocks.
