(Motorsport) Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO of Formula 1’s Mercedes has urged his team to be “careful” to avoid a post title slump but has insisted that the 2022 season has been less painful than 2021, where the Silver Arrows dramatically lost out on the Drivers Championship in the last race of the season. Mercedes’ record of eight consecutive Constructors Championships came to an end in 2022 after winning only one race all season and finished third behind winners Red Bull and Ferrari. Both Red Bull and Ferrari suffered slumps after their title winning eras came to an end and questions have been raised if Mercedes might be experiencing the same after a very disappointing 2022 season.
“Of course we are talking about it, we are analysing what are the reasons the teams that dominated in the past suddenly lost performance? You can see with Ferrari, they lost the whole top leadership and a key driver… I think that’s something you can trace back. With Red Bull, it was a fundamental situation that the power unit regulation changed upside down, and no work deal. So fundamental parameters changed. We are looking at that and thinking… we better be careful.
“A season has gone by in a heartbeat and we can’t let it happen to look back at the end of next season and the one after, saying ‘that’s bitter’. We have the same organisation, the same capability, the same funding. The other pillars are still in place. We are 100 percent sure that this was a year that was necessary for us to re-energise and re-motivate the team. This has again brought us down to the ground, made us appreciate how you win and also understand how difficult it is to recover.
“We’ve started the 100 metre sprint 10 metres behind everyone… so we’ve just got to run faster. This organisation has all it needs to run faster. There’s no fear, but we need to be sharp. I’m a glass half-empty man. I’m not sure at all we can bounce back to a position where we can fight for championships. You need to acknowledge that the competition is strong but we will do everything in our power to set our objectives and try to beat them.”
Mercedes Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff
Wolff also insisted that the 2022 season was less painful than 2021 when Hamilton lost out on the Drivers Championship in a controversial Abu Dhabi GP finale. When asked which season was more painful Woff said:
“Last year, without any doubt. Last year was strong and how it ended… it’s out of control. It was the first time I had lost control since I was an adolescent and in my sense of fairness, that was totally against my values. This year was not as peaky in terms of the emotions because we knew from the get-go that the car was just not good enough. We know it was our doing… Abu Dhabi wasn’t. We knew we got it wrong. We’re conscious others did a good job, and this is an absolute meritocracy how it worked out. This is OK.”
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