Mercedes have had a disappointing couple of campaigns as per their extremely high standards. Although the team finished second in the championship this season as compared to third in 2022, it still seemed like a downfall. The reason for the same is that the Silver Arrows failed to win a race for the first time as a Constructor in 2023. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has now claimed that the W13 was his biggest mistake that has resulted in his side’s recent slump.
As quoted by gazzetta.it, Wolff said, “The W13 was my biggest mistake in recent years. We took the wrong approach to building the car for the 2022 season“. Since there was a significant amount of rule changes coming into the 2022 campaign, all teams had a level playing field.
However, Mercedes surprisingly got their car horribly wrong at the start of the 2022 season. As a result of the same, they were always playing catch up to the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari. The main reason why the Silver Arrows struggled so much was because they failed to get the aspect of the ground-effect cars right.
Consequently, they were the team that struggled most with porpoising. It was only in the latter stages of the campaign that it seemed that Mercedes got a better grasp of the rules. Their hard work paid off eventually as they managed to register a spectacular win in Brazil with George Russell.
Their win in Sao Paulo was also the reason why Wolff revealed that they did not consider changing the idea of their 2023 car. He then concluded by stating that he doesn’t regret his decision despite it being a mistake in hindsight, as most teams considered their performance in Brazil as a key metric to develop their 2023 car.
Toto Wolff has revealed Mercedes will change their 2024 car completely
Since it became apparent that Mercedes had not got the concept of their car right this season, they have plans to bring an entirely new idea for the 2024 campaign. In a recent interview, Toto Wolff explained how his side will change the W15 completely.
He said that they will change everything that is possible to change. Some of the key parts include the chassis and the aerodynamics. Wolff is hopeful that bringing these changes could help steer Mercedes in the right direction to reduce the gap to the utterly dominant Red Bull in 2024.
Similarly to Wolff, George Russell is also optimistic about Mercedes’ chances going into 2024. In a recent interview (as quoted by racingnews365.com), he stated that he expects the W15 to be a “clean slate“. As a result, Russell revealed that he has no doubt that they will be in a stronger position in Bahrain next year as compared to earlier this season.
Irrespective of how much gain do Mercedes actually make, it is pertinent to note that catching up to Red Bull will be a tall order. The Milton Keynes outfit obliterated the field in 2023 as they registered a record 21 wins out of 22 and will definitely have the advantage in development as well as compared to their rivals.
Thus, instead of looking to catch up to Red Bull, Mercedes may need to reconsider their objectives of ensuring that they keep the likes of Ferrari and McLaren behind first. This is because towards the end of the 2023 campaign, it seemed that both the Prancing Horse and the team from Woking had a stronger car than the Silver Arrows.
