Toto Wolff admits Mercedes F1’s belief in their “very different” car concept was “proven wrong” by rivals

Mercedes' unique 'zeropods' car concept turned heads when first shown. But it hasn't worked out, and Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes "got it wrong".

Toto Wolff admits Mercedes F1’s belief in their “very different” car concept was “proven wrong” by rivals

Mercedes' team principal, Toto Wolff

The start to Mercedes’ 2022 season definitely was not great. While they were able to salvage a 3-4 finish, they were quite easily the third-best car out there. For most of the season, this remained the case. That is, except in some races towards the latter stages of the season, where they had the upper hand on Ferrari. But there was only one weekend where they truly challenged Red Bull – the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, where they took a 1-2. That was the only cause of joy for Toto Wolff’s team last season.

It was perhaps this result that prompted them to invest more time in their different, ‘zeropods’ car concept. But it hasn’t bore fruit, and a change of car concept looks to be on the cards now. The start to the 2023 season, if anything, has been even worse. In last weekend’s Bahrain GP, the Mercedes W14 looked like the fourth-best car. They were even trumped by their customer team, Aston Martin, who seemed to have the second-best car on race pace.

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Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Mercedes will remain fourth the whole season – it may change, track to track. But for the design as a whole, Mercedes have admitted defeat with it, and Toto Wolff has said that the team were “proven wrong” in their belief. As per the official Formula 1 website, the Austrian team principal: “I think we really tried hard to make it work because the data that we have extrapolated showed us that this works. And we were proven wrong, very simply.”

He added: “And you can see that the two quickest cars [Red Bull and Aston Martin], including the Ferraris – the three quickest cars – have a similar concept of how they generate performance, and it’s very different to ours. And at a certain stage we came to the conclusion: we got this wrong. Simply, we got it wrong. Why we got it wrong, we’re still analysing, because we follow data and we followed what simulations tell us; in that case we were misguided by those data.”

Read More: Toto Wolff reveals Mercedes are facing a dilemma regarding ‘car concept’

Mercedes' team principal, Toto Wolff
Mercedes’ team principal, Toto Wolff

It is not as if Mercedes did not try to make the concept work, as they were perhaps encouraged that the car had more potential following their impressive outing at the Sao Paulo GP. But unfortunately for them, it looks as if it was a one-off. And continuing to invest time in a concept that isn’t likely to work will be disastrous to their chances of eventually getting back to the front. Earlier, Lewis Hamilton had said that the team didn’t listen to him about the development direction to take – perhaps they would’ve been in a better spot if they had.

So, the team acknowledged that the car concept doesn’t work. Toto Wolff said: “All of us involved in the decision-making process came to the conclusion: ‘Well, we can’t continue that way’, We really tried to stick to it and we don’t want to, under any circumstance, run in a one-way street saying, ‘We’re going to make this work no matter what’, because it doesn’t work. And I don’t want to lose more time.”

He also said that the car will look very different in “six or seven races” time based on the development direction that Mercedes will now take. But a complete overhaul is not on the cards, because of the budget cap. So while the chassis will not be changed, it’s possible that how the aerodynamics work will be changed, as well as the bodywork.

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