Toto Wolff makes big revelation about Mercedes upgrades

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Wolff makes big revelation about Mercedes upgrades

Mercedes are not finished upgrading the W14

George Brabner

Thursday 7 September 2023 10:57

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Toto Wolff has revealed more information about Mercedes' upgrade schedule for the rest of 2023, and whether or not past packages have improved the team’s pace.

Trailing both Ferrari and Red Bull at Monza, it looks as though Mercedes are not moving towards the front of the field in yet another season where they have been unable to fight for race wins.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has not been victorious since the hair-raising 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while his apprentice George Russell has scored just one race victory since joining the previously front-running Silver Arrows – a drop in the ocean compared to the stream of wins Mercedes became accustomed to claiming in the early phase of the turbo hybrid era.

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The team can take comfort in their recent performances at Circuit Zandvoort and the Hungaroring, however, leading Wolff to be optimistic about the Singapore Grand Prix.

Wolf told Sky Sports Germany: “If we take a look at Zandvoort, we completely messed up with the rain, but with our pace, we were close to Verstappen and in the end, our result should have been better. But maybe we can show in Singapore and the remaining races that we can do that. We will see if we can get closer to the Red Bulls.”

More changes to come

Mercedes made significant changes to the sidepods of the conceptually flawed W14 ahead of May’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Whilst the team has shown flashes of front-running pace since what was their first major upgrade of the year, they have not significantly closed the gap to Red Bull, who remain a cut above the rest in the races.

Wolff, however, is insistent that Mercedes’ upgrades are working.

The W14 has not lived up to expectations in 2023

“I think [the upgrade package introduced in Monaco] was important,” he said. “We were able to see in the wind tunnel that we gained a lot from the reset. We are still running after because if you make a reset, sometimes you lose downforce first of all but our data now shows us that we are moving forward.”

There’s no denying that there is still a lot of work to be done at Mercedes if they want their drivers to fight for world championships again, and Wolff has not hidden away from that fact.

The team is still without a win past the halfway point in the season, but Mercedes’ team principal has revealed that more major upgrades for the W14 are in the pipeline.

“The pieces are coming, they’ve already been produced or going to get produced. The wind tunnel has been closed for a while now for this year's car. But we have things coming,” Wolff explained.

“[A big change in the car is] going to happen. In some things, we may be going to be more conventional, where we might have gone the wrong way before, for other things we will add what we learned. So there is going to be one or another innovation.”