Wolff: British GP will not be "full of roses" for Mercedes
Toto Wolff warns the 2023 British Grand Prix will not be “full of roses” for Mercedes, while stressing that Formula 1 teams must “break the run” of Red Bull.
The Austrian was left to rue a tough weekend for his team at the Red Bull Ring last time out as a penalised Lewis Hamilton dropped behind George Russell for a 7-8 result.
Mercedes reckons that poor showing was an outlier and the eight-time constructors’ champion has everything necessary at its disposal to bounce back.
Notably, the W14 will wear a new front wing for Silverstone to improve airflow to the floor, but Wolff has still checked expectations for this weekend saying it will not be “full of roses”.
He said: “I’m of the firm belief that we have everything that’s needed to bounce back.
“We had a bad weekend [in Austria] and these cars for, not only us but for everyone, are unpredictable.
"We’ve seen other teams, be it Ferrari or Aston Martin, having these outliers. Even within Red Bull, [Sergio Perez] has been in and out.
“We very much hope that this was a track that was an outlier for us, but it’s not like we are going here with super high expectations and it’s all full of roses. It’s not. We still need to improve the car.”
The Mercedes F1 boss added that the ground-effect cars introduced in 2022 require different methods to be developed, hence why Red Bull has stolen a march as it is the “only” team to ‘get it right’.
Therefore, Wolff said the remaining teams must aim to stop the run of defending champion Red Bull.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG, on stage
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Wolff reckoned: “I think those cars are very different in the way you develop and you look at them than any previous regulations.
“It’s not trivial at all to develop the tools and access them in the right way to have the quickest car.
“I believe that only one team [Red Bull] has gotten that right so far. Obviously, they carry that advantage with them. They are not stopping.
“All of us behind - Ferrari, Aston Martin and us, you can see sometimes Alpine - we are all in a very tight bunch.
"We need to break the run of a team that is the benchmark at the moment on merit. None of us has another choice than to catch up.”
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