Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is convinced that he can fight against competitor Red Bull Racing again next year. Although the team is second in the constructors’ championship, Mercedes is 310 points behind Red Bull. However, Wolff is positive about the 2024 season after seeing growth from competitors such as McLaren and Aston Martin this season.
After winning eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships, Mercedes currently finds itself in an unprecedentedly challenging position. The team has struggled to be fully competitive in the new Formula 1 era. Red Bull has won every Grand Prix since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and appears to be unbeatable. Red Bull, together with Max Verstappen, seems to be well on its way to winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships by a large margin.
However, Wolff looks to Formula 1’s recent past for inspiration. He points to Aston Martin’s remarkable progress from 2022 to 2023 and the impressive mid-season upgrade package that brought McLaren back into the race. Wolff emphasizes that a significant leap forward is necessary during the winter to get back into contention. ‘From where we are now, we just need a step like McLaren and Aston Martin achieved in one go, not a two-tenths upgrade, but a five-tenths upgrade to get back into contention, so yeah, I think that it is possible,” Wolff says on the official Formula 1 website.
Mercedes delivers the best possible performance
When it comes to the specific plans for Mercedes’ next car, Wolff remains realistic: ‘I think we have a few directions; if we knew it would be much easier. The car is very unpredictable and lacks grip, so there are a lot of things we need to address. We tend to think in Formula 1 that there is one magic solution. We just have to bring all the components together to make them work together in the car, so there isn’t just one thing I could mention.”
Despite the challenges, Mercedes continues to perform solidly. ‘The teams from second to sixth can be quite close, that’s us, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin. “But we are consistently scoring with two cars, we are solidly in second place in the championship and hopefully soon third in the Drivers’ Championship with Lewis Hamilton, so we are delivering the best possible performance given the car’s lack of performance,” he said. the Mercedes team boss.
