McLaren is now the leading Mercedes-powered team on the Formula 1 grid, prompting Toto Wolff to quip about the “easy” decision he made that has haunted the team.
The Woking-based team returned to being a Mercedes customer outfit from 2021 onwards after short stints with Honda, and then Renault since 2014.
During this time, the Silver Arrows were still a dominant force in the upper echelons of the pecking order, and McLaren was finding its feet in the midfield.
In 2023, Mercedes boss Wolff and McLaren CEO Zak Brown penned a deal that will see the German marque supply power units to the British outfit until 2030.
Looking back, Wolff joked how agreeing to a long-term deal with a backmarker was an “easy” choice, which he has come to regret since McLaren’s meteoric rise.
“Look at where they were three, four years ago, when we signed the deal with them that they were going to use our fast engines for the next few years,” he told Sky Italia.
“Then they were 18th and it was easy to make such a decision.”
Since being victorious in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix last May, McLaren has been on a dominant roll with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Having wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship last season, the Woking-based team is en route to back-to-back titles in 2025.
The Mercedes works team, on the other hand, has been trailing behind and lies third in the standings, a mammoth 250 points behind.
“With the knowledge of today, I don’t know if it was the most intelligent choice in my life to make that deal with them, haha,” Wolff quipped.
“They have it really well together in terms of engineering and that’s why they perform so insanely well, especially in hot conditions.”
Where Mercedes is losing out to McLaren
Wolff is convinced that McLaren has done a better job than Mercedes at optimising the team’s all-round package.
And while the two teams might share the same engine, it is the MCL39’s consistent performance across all conditions and tracks that has handed it the advantage.
“In Montreal we did well with cooler temperatures, but in Austria we’ve known for years that McLaren has it best,” Wolff explained.
“Mercedes can fight for victory at one circuit, while falling more than a minute behind the next weekend.”
The ground effect generation of Mercedes cars has been notorious for its slim working window and sensitivity to temperature, something that the McLarens don’t suffer from.
“It remains bizarre how big the difference is between performance on different circuits and under different conditions with these ground effect cars,” Wolff emphasised.
“We won in Montreal but finished a minute behind in Austria, which is unacceptable for a team and brand like us.”
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