Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes his team’s development of the W13 was “going in the wrong direction” when the team focused entirely on setting the car as low as possible.
Mercedes hoped to hit back this season after the lost driver’s title in 2021, but it failed to do so with the W13. George Russell signed in Brazil for Mercedes’ only win of 2022 and the team struggled to perform, particularly in the early days.
Mercedes still has a few questions, although Toto Wolff thinks he knows from when it went the wrong way. “I remember a discussion in October 2021, we talked about how exciting it is to find the performance through the floor,” Wolff says in a video from Mercedes. “And the trick was to set the car as low as possible. I think we went in the wrong direction there.”
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However, Wolff does not immediately see 2022 as a lost year. “It was an interesting development for me personally, because we had a very successful period with eight constructors’ wins in a row. We knew the day would come when it would be difficult, but we didn’t understand what was going on and it always depends on how you look at it.”
Wolff is disappointed that it took Mercedes a long time to get the eureka moment. “Some of our competitors had competitive cars. The hardest part was that it took us so many months to figure out what the fundamental problem was. In the end, that cost us a season,” said the Mercedes team boss.
