Toto Wolff: “Mercedes will not stop working on the W13”
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Toto Wolff reveals that Mercedes do not have plans of shifting the focus to their 2023 car yet.
While the Mercedes W13 is comfortably the third-best car, it is just that. It is not very competitive with the top two teams – Red Bull, and Ferrari. The car does not have a particularly good straight-line speed, and by its nature has a very stiff suspension, which makes for a bumpy ride.
While Mercedes are certainly closer in the points table to Ferrari, than Ferrari are to Red Bull, it is for the most part down to circumstance. Both Ferrari cars retired in Azerbaijan, and Leclerc has suffered another retirement once, and Carlos Sainz another two. Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez retired in Bahrain, with Verstappen retiring once again in Australia.
While the car may not be wonderful, it certainly has top-notch reliability (till now) which is a very important part of a Formula 1 season. But performance is not particularly strong. While the car looked good in Spain, it looked much worse in Monaco and Azerbaijan. After a difficult Friday practice in Montreal, Lewis Hamilton thought that Mercedes’ efforts to improve the W13 were in vain.
“We’ll keep working on it and it is what it is, [as] I think this is the car for the year. We just have to tough it out and work hard on building a better car for next year.”
But his team boss, Toto Wolff feels that Mercedes still need to explore the W13’s different characteristics, so they can actually understand what needs to change for 2023.
Toto Wolff: “Maybe consolidating third is what we need to do at that stage”
Toto Wolff is not very optimistic for this season, and for their current car, the W13. But he still feels that it is important for them to analyze and get to the root of the issues for a stronger 2023. As quoted by Motorsport, he said:
“I think you can only start to look at the W14 when you have actually understood what you need to change on the W13.”
“The car’s not in a great place to say the least. I think we just need to see the remaining races, session by session and test by test. And unfortunately, we don’t have enough days to sort it out.”
Wolff said that the bouncing is not the only problem of the W13, and it also naturally lacks pace, which is not particularly influenced by the bouncing.
“We’re lacking pace, independent of a bouncing car. And realistically we’re not going to win the championship by a massive margin. So maybe consolidating third is what we need to do at that stage and see what we learn.”
While Lewis Hamilton was displeased by Mercedes’ experiments with the car in qualifying, Toto Wolff had no qualms over it, as he feels that Mercedes must take risks.
“We are not in the championship fight and I think if we would have given Lewis a better strategy with a cool-down lap, we would have been further ahead,”
This is why Wolff did not mind George Russell’s ill-fated experiment on the slicks, even though it probably compromised his qualifying position. He thought that taking a risk was worth it in their particular situation
“This is what he did [took a risk] and it could have been a hero moment. It wasn’t, but I think you’ve got to go for it when you are where we are.”
While Lewis Hamilton was not pleased with the car, he has qualified on the second row for the race. He was certainly pleased with that, and said that ‘Qualifying P4 has never felt so good.’ Despite being pleased with P4, he stated that his aim in the Grand Prix will be primarily defensive and he will be trying to hold the position.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)