Toto Wolff has asserted that Mercedes held a faster car than Red Bull at certain points during the 2023 season. He revealed plans for the team’s 2024 car, emphasizing a significant overhaul with as many different parts as possible compared to the current season.
Despite finishing the season in second place in the constructors’ championship, Mercedes failed to secure a race win and trailed a substantial 451 points behind Red Bull, with Ferrari closely following.
Wolff informed the media that, despite the results not reflecting it, Mercedes had the advantage of possessing the fastest car in Singapore. In that race, Lewis Hamilton finished third, and George Russell crashed out from third in the final stages.
Hamilton is now enduring a two-season winless streak, with his teammate securing the team’s only victory during that period at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2022.
Wolff: The stopwatch never lies
“From a Team Principal’s role, the sporting side has been tough, because last year, for a long-time, we didn’t understand why our car was so bad, but this year, albeit it was not so much fishing in the dark, but we couldn’t capitalise in terms of race results.
“I think particularly in Austin, we could have had a win, but we made mistakes, we had an off weekend in Brazil, where we can absolutely reconstruct what happened, and it is not what would happen to a top team.
“We also had the quickest car in Singapore – but the results don’t show it, but it was a year of let’s say moving forward with the car and understanding for next year.
“The stopwatch never lies, and we will see next year in Bahrain. [We will have] a different chassis, different aerodynamics, different characteristics, different suspension and everything that we can change, we [are going to] change.
“So far, the results in the virtual world are positive, but we need to be careful in terms of managing our expectations. We need such a step in order to catch up to fight for a championship, but obviously if you make a radical step, that means lots of new knowledge.”
