After eight years of domination, Mercedes F1 is having a difficult year, far behind Ferrari and Red Bull. Toto Wolff, the team principal, is not surprised that the cycle has ended and that the page of crowns is turning for the moment.
“No! You can’t win ten years in a row without falling flat sometimes” he told the Osterreich newspaper. “Now we are trying to pick ourselves up, which gives us the opportunity to restructure the team.”
On the other hand, he denies that Mercedes is already thinking of forgetting the W13 to focus on the following project: “We’ll be using the same cars in 2023, which means we’ll need everything we learn now for next year. The sooner we get through this, the better.”
The team is bringing changes this weekend in Miami, but Wolff sees no chance of closing the gap with the top teams: “No, unfortunately we are too far for that!”
He wants to be reassuring about Lewis Hamilton’s motivation after a disastrous Imola GP: “We were both upset, but totally on the same page. Even on the straights the car is sometimes undrivable and absolutely uncompetitive.”
“But look at his Instagram account, does he look depressed? It’s good that we’re not just three or four tenths behind, because now we really have to wake up.”