“There’s no such thing as a winter break" - Mercedes strategy head reaffirms that the German team is working hard to get 2024 F1 challenger ready

Mercedes head of strategy Rosie Wait stressed that there was "no such thing as a winter break" for the team working in the factory in Brackley in Brixworth as they work on the 2024 challenger.

The German team finished P2 in the Constructors Championship behind the mighty Red Bull and edged out Ferrari by just three points in the 2023 season. In the two years of the new regulations, Mercedes have only been able to taste victory once and claim pole position three times in over 40 races.

In a Q/A session on their YouTube channel, Wait spoke about the team working hard in the upcoming winter break and said:

“Ultimately, the aim of all of us here is to win championships. We weren’t able to deliver that this year. However, given the performance we had and the challenges we faced, P2 is a really good result. So, the mood this week is really one of happiness and relief at having delivered that P2. Now we can move on to putting all of our energies into going one better next year.

“In terms of the factory, there’s no such thing as a winter break. The winter period is often the busiest time. Many people in the factory have been focusing on next year’s car for months. Now that the racing’s over, the focus can switch entirely to that, and it’s all hands on deck to get the car ready ahead of pre-season testing in the first race next year.”

Mercedes Team Principal gives his take on the "Mount Everest" like challenge for them in 2024

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff compared being competitive against Red Bull next season to climbing Mount Everest. He believes his side are currently far behind in terms of pure performance.

As per F1.com, Wolff said:

“I think us... assessing it in an honest way that this car is never going to be good enough to fight for championships – we’ve taken the decision that we’re going to go back to the drawing board and come up with something new next year. But Mount Everest is in front of us.”

It will be fascinating to see if the Mercedes W15 can be more competitive than its previous two iterations and become more of a challenge to Red Bull and take at least some of the race wins away from them.