Despite the imperfections in the 2023 car, Toto Wolff has stated that Mercedes accomplished all of their objectives during the winter.
Mercedes failed to win any races in the previous season, and in an attempt to regain their position, they developed the “W14”. However, Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth in the season-opening Bahrain GP, revealed in an interview with the latest edition of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast that Mercedes ignored his suggestions during the car’s development. As a result, the team got off to another weak start.
Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, acknowledged that the development objectives for the new car were accomplished during the off-season.
When asked if the team had set itself high enough goals, Wolff explained to the media, including RacingNews365.com, “We set ourselves very high targets, and we’ve achieved those high targets.”
“I think it’s where we set those targets, all of us collectively, and how we need to maybe change the perspective, which is an interesting exercise. It is also something I’m looking forward to.
“I’d rather win every single race and continue to win championship after championship, but this is now the real challenge, and for me it is an interesting one, as painful as it is today.”
“It is pretty clear where we should be going, we just need to make the data work, and I think the most important thing is re-establishing a baseline to say: ‘This is where we are, and that there are no surprises in the other direction.”
Wolff conceded that Mercedes had been monitoring other designs.
“We’ve looked at other ideas and haven’t stood still,” Toto Wolff explained.
“That’s not only in the two weeks when we saw that we haven’t been able to close the gap, but we’ve done it for a while just to be open-minded, and still with an emphasis on making this [concept] work.
“But we’ve already looked at different concepts.”
