Toto Wolff believes Mercedes are on the right track with the W15, following a sequence of updates in recent events. The Mercedes team principal argues that progress is being made in finding a better aerodynamic baseline. Moving forward, Wolff is hopeful that the technical team at Brackley can address some of their early limitations in 2024.
In many ways, the Monaco GP was a bittersweet event for Mercedes. The Silver Arrows were within touching distance of Ferrari and McLaren in qualifying, whilst George Russell managed to qualify Max Verstappen. From this perspective, the German constructor had a reasonable enough weekend in Monte Carlo.
However, a Championship-winning team is never going to be satisfied with P5 and P7.
There were also complaints from Lewis Hamilton, who mentioned that teammate George Russell had upgrades that he didn’t have access to yet. The 7-time Champion’s demeanour was relatively downbeat last weekend, indicative of his slowly dying relationship with the Silver Arrows.
TOTO WOLFF PLEASED WITH MERCEDES PROGRESS
Despite this mixed bag of conclusions, Toto Wolff left the eighth round of the season with a positive outlook:
“Overall, we’ve had a positive weekend. We were much closer than we have been in Qualifying so far this year and showed good pace throughout the race,” he explained.
“The trajectory is going in the right direction. We’ve understood where we need to improve the balance car, and we’re bringing updates to enhance that.
“We know there will be ups and downs depending on the circuits we go to, but overall, I am happy with the development direction. Let’s see how we perform in Canada.”
Of course, this is not the first time that Mercedes have left an F1 Grand Prix with optimism. Arguably, the most frustrating theme for the team in recent years is that flashes of hope are often a far harsher reality.
Therefore, the general expectation of Mercedes is certainly not to challenge at the front. With Ferrari and McLaren bringing the fight to Red Bull, there is slightly less focus on Toto Wolff’s personnel.
This much-needed breathing space should give them the chance to quietly go about their business and, ideally, improve their position for the second half of 2024 and early 2025.
