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Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff is confident that the Silver Arrows have the potential to return to their winning days in 2023. The eight-time world champions endured a rather underwhelming season last year.
Wolff admitted that the team has understood where the car lacked in terms of performance over the past season. He, however, believes the true potential of the W14 will only be made apparent after the first round of testing, which Mercedes certainly expect to go smoothly.
As reported by RaceFans, the Austrian said:
“I think we have understood how we fell back and where the shortcomings are, where we have gaps in understanding or had gaps in understanding and we’re working hard on putting a car on the ground that has addressed all of that. But we will only see when starting testing whether we have unlocked the potential that we believe has always been in the car.”
Mercedes were the only team outside the top two to secure a race win in 2022 and finished the season third in the constructors' championship.
Wolff admitted that Ferrari and Red Bull will continue to be serious threats in the upcoming season. Sharing his expectations about the competition in the year ahead, Wolff added:
“We have no doubt, when you’re starting behind by half a second, that it’s going to be difficult to catch up to such great organisations like Red Bull or Ferrari. Having said that, we are super-determined in doing just that, but we need to set our expectations that are realistic level. If we perform in the way that we hope, so then we’d like to be part in the racing at the very front. I think that would be a starting point.
“But we don’t take that for granted. It could well be that the gaps are like they were at the end of last season. But I think there’s so much potential still that’s within our car, within the concept, the way we drive the car, et cetera, that maybe our development slope can be steeper in the months to come.”
Mercedes will be launching the W14 on February 15th, 2023.
"You can't buy experience" - George Russell reflects on his first season with Mercedes
After three years at Williams, George Russell made quite the impression in his first year at Mercedes. There, the Briton claims to have learned plenty, especially from his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
As reported by GPFans, the 24-year-old described the impact of having a seven-time world champion as a teammate.
"You can't buy experience, so having that chance to be in the garage next to him and sit opposite him in the engineer's office is probably helping me gain a few years of experience."
He added:
"It is maybe making up for my three years where I was trying to lead the team at Williams when I actually had very little experience in that regard."
George Russell secured his first race win for Mercedes last season at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton failed to take the top step of the podium all year long.
