Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has warned that rival Formula 1 teams will come to rue the Silver Arrows’ slump over the past two seasons as he sets his sights on a course correction for 2024.
The team’s eight-year reign as Constructors’ Champions came to an end in 2022 as the team pursued the flawed zero-pod design philosophy entering F1’s ground effect era.
While troubled, the team’s 2022 challenger, W13, went on to dominate in Brazil as George Russell drove to victory in the Sprint and claimed a maiden Grand Prix victory the following day.
However, 2023 saw Mercedes endure a first winless campaign since 2011 while fierce rivals Red Bull stormed to victory in 21 of 22 grands prix.
The German marque abandoned the zero-pod philosophy ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix in May, taking second in the standings but only with a points tally less than half that of the dominant RB19.
“We learnt a lot [this season],” Wolff said in a post-season question and answer session. “The races and the seasons that are difficult are the ones where you learn the most. And we always say, the days we lose are the days our competitors are going to regret, because we learn the most.
“I think there’s so many lessons that we learned as an organisation, as humans, but also technically that will be beneficial going forward. I wouldn’t be able to pick one out though because there’s so many things that we have looked at that will help us progress over the next year.
“It’s a constant learning process and next year, and in the years to come, there will be situations where we say ‘well, we didn’t spot that.’
“That was also true during the last 10 years where we won eight championships. You just got to constantly learn and develop. That’s a mindset we’ve always had.”
Mercedes did come close to victory at the United States Grand Prix in October when Lewis Hamilton finished just 2.2 seconds behind Max Verstappen. However, the seven-time champion was stripped of the result when his plank was found to be excessively worn after the race distance.
Regardless of the outcome, Wolff picked out the race in Austin as Mercedes best of the year saying: “We brought an upgrade package that worked, the car was performing well, and we were hunting down the leader.
“You could say, ‘well, you were disqualified for a car that was too low’, but the genuine performance was there and that was an enjoyable weekend. I’ve always said that I’d rather have a fast car that we haven’t tuned in the right way.”
“And obviously you need to finish. But that was the best weekend overall, seeing that the correlation between the wind tunnel and the track was good.”
Wolff added that amongst the biggest challenges that Mercedes faces for 2024 is setting the ‘expectations right’ ahead of the upcoming campaign.
“We have a huge mountain to climb. There’s a team that is so successful and we have a big gap to close. At the same time, I believe we’ve taken some proactive steps to close that gap. Is it going to be good enough? I don’t know.
“But we’re going to see it in testing and then in the first race in Bahrain. I’m super excited. I’d like to start going now. It’s the stopwatch that’s going to tell us what job we’ve done.”
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