Mercedes were handed a sounding defeat in the 2023 season opener in Bahrain. Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff saw both his drivers finish behind the Aston Martin cars in what could be only defined as a humiliation.
Lewis Hamilton managed to hold back Fernando Alonso for 37 laps. Alonso charged at the start of the race but eventually held back in order to preserve his tyres. The Spaniard cut the deficit to Lewis within a couple of laps.
But when the Aston Martin started attacking the 7-time World Champion, he was nowhere close to the pace of the car. Neither was George Russell who was unable to stave off Lance Stroll.
The Bahrain GP showed that Aston Martin’s hype is no joke and the team has the potential to be Mercedes’s biggest challenge this season. And Wolff claims that race should come off as an alarming call that the team need to up their game.
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Toto Wolff takes inspiration from Aston Martin
Toto Wolff believes that Mercedes are much further than rivals Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team put up a dominant performance over the weekend while Mercedes struggled.
Wolff highlighted, “I think we’ve almost doubled if not tripled the gap to Red Bull and this is what we need to look at. Everything in between, including Ferrari, is just a sideshow.
In the meantime, the Austrian finds inspiration in Aston Martin. Aston finished 7th in the standing last year and had until then secured only one podium. They also use Mercedes engines which means most of the team’s spurt in performance has come from their aerodynamics and drivers.
The Mercedes boss claims if the team wish to become constructors champions again or win races, then they need to deploy strategies like Aston have done.
Toto added, “What Aston Martin was able to achieve is a good inspiration because they came back from two seconds off the pace to be the second-quickest team probably on the road.”
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Toto rules out title hopes for Mercedes in 2023
Toto Wolff believes Red Bull is way too strong to be stopped from winning the title again in 2023. But he also predicts Aston Martin could finish above them in the championship. He claims the Fernando Alonso-led team could be the 3rd fastest in the grid.
Wolff claims it has become clear that Mercedes must shift their focus on developing the car. And this too can be seen in Aston’s progress, who worked on their plans a year ahead.
Wolff remarked, “We’ve lost a year in development in order to have a steeper development curve and you just need to take these decisions. As I said before, Aston Martin took that decision, and they came back strong.”
Based on the lessons learnt in 2022, he claims the silver arrows are better off positioning themselves as a challenger for next season. Toto added, “So if we start from our base, maybe we can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls. That’s the ambition.”
Mercedes have however managed to dampen the porpoising in the W14. But the car is far from finished and it is speculated that the team are working on a “B Variant” of the car at their facilities in Brackley.
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