Mercedes are making faster progress in developing their 2023 car having accepted they needed a change of concept, says team principal Toto Wolff.
The team realised it needed to change tack with its development following the uncompetitive start to its 2023 season in Bahrain.
Having persisted with a novel interpretation of F1’s latest technical regulations throughout last season and into the beginning of this year, Wolff says the team is “storming full steam ahead now and changing things” with its W14.
Although the team enjoyed a slightly more competitive weekend in Jeddah, where George Russell qualified within six tenths of a second of pole winner Sergio Perez, Wolff said that hasn’t led the team to doubt its decision to revise its design philosophy.
“That doesn’t make it a millimetre better,” said Wolff. “I think that we are always looking at the benchmark performance and that is [Max] Verstappen and Perez, and it’s just too far away. So that hasn’t changed the gap. I think if Max would have finished qualifying, it would have been even bigger. We have seen it on the long runs, too.”
The team’s performance in “single sessions, single qualifying or even a single race” won’t deflect it from its chosen course, said Wolff. “My state of mind hasn’t changed a millimetre just because we are P3 in qualifying. The difference is that the trajectory is set now.”
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The development path they have chosen is already delivering “big steps in relative performance to where we are even now”, said Wolff.
“The kind of gains that are coming in our [research and development] and in aero are much bigger than we’ve had over a long time. We’ve unlocked some potential because we simply look at things from a different angle now.
“We have a different perspective because of our learnings of the Bahrain test and Bahrain race. So there was no step back, on the contrary there was immediately two steps forward.”
However given the time needed to bring the current updates to the track, Wolff is cautious about predicting how competitive the team might be later in the year.
“Is it realistic with today’s performance to even talk about the world championship? No it’s not. You’re a fool if you think that way.
“But equally, it’s motor racing and you must never give up. And I think if you continue to do the big steps that…
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