Toto Wolff focused on Mercedes' "shortcomings" despite continued F1 dominance

Mercedes

Wolff focused on Mercedes' "shortcomings" despite continued F1 dominance

Mercedes has won three of the first four races this year

Sam Hall

Tuesday 18 May 2021 12:44

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has insisted he remains focused on the team's "shortcomings" even after taking three wins from the first four F1 races of the season.

After a disappointing pre-season test in Bahrain, Mercedes has since bounced back to again lead the way in the constructors' and drivers' championships.

Although Lewis Hamilton has made his best start to a season in terms of his points total, Wolff is refusing to enjoy the continued success of his team and claimed he instead pays more attention to its flaws.

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“I seriously mean it - never stand still," asserted Wolff. "Recognise the shortcomings and gaps.

"A debrief will be half an hour, with 25 minutes about things that went wrong over the weekend and what we need to improve. This is very much the mindset of the team over the years.”

Asked what the biggest goal is for the team this year, Wolff explained: "Target setting is extremely important, but in a year like this, one, the target setting is to meet our own expectations.

"Our own expectations are that we are fighting for a drivers' world championship and constructors' world championship whilst not forgetting that there is a huge regulatory change for next year so you can’t just give up one or the other racing season so that balancing act is quite difficult.”

With the newly introduced budget cap in place this season, Mercedes is unable to outspend the opposition to simultaneously develop cars for both this year and next and must instead spread its finances accordingly.

Wolff, though, welcomes the changes for next season. He said: “Next year is a totally different car concept and new tyres, so we lost a lot of downforce, the tyres are unknown and the performance of the tyres.

"It is a real technical revolution that is happening and that hasn’t been the case for many, many years.”