Wolff warns against Mercedes "entitlement"

Sam Hall
Sunday 21 August 2022 08:00 - Updated: 12:34

Toto Wolff has warned Mercedes against believing it is 'entitled' to be winning races as the team continues to recover from a difficult start to the season.

The Silver Arrows struggled to get to grips with porpoising in the early stages of the year but has since taken steps to understand its problems and now sits just 30 points off Ferrari in the constructors' standings.

Despite the continued improvement, Wolff has warned against allowing his team to believe it has a right to win.

“We haven’t met our expectations so far," conceded Wolff in a Mercedes video.

"We are strong and solid third on the road but that is not our aim.

“But in the same sense, we can’t feel any sense of entitlement because the moment you think you should be winning, this is really the downfall.

“So we are humble about our expectations, we are humble about our competitors – they have done a great job, there are a lot of good people [at those teams] but we are also clear about our objectives, and this is to be back at the front, fight for race victories and eventually be back in a position to fight for a world championship.”

Wolff issues Mercedes orders

Despite the difficult start to the year, Wolff has suggested the challenge facing Mercedes is no different to in years in which the team dominated the sport.

“We must always thrive to improve going forward," added Wolff.

"Even in the years where we had a dominant car which won us eight consecutive world championship titles, we had to develop, we had to be better tomorrow than today in order to keep our competition at bay.

“And this is now what we have to do in 2022 and all the years going forward."