Mercedes is confident that they will be competing closer to the front in the 2024 F1 world championship after achieving only one victory in the past two seasons.
Toto Wolff did not mention defeating Red Bull as one of Mercedes’ goals for 2024. Instead, the focus is on consistently being among the leading teams, including Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin, and achieving more notable results. Throughout 2023, Mercedes was consistently in second place in the constructors’ championship, narrowly securing that position by a three-point margin over Ferrari. However, they did not have the second-fastest car throughout the season. Aston Martin, McLaren, and Ferrari all had moments of superiority, while Mercedes consistently accumulated enough points to secure the runner-up position. Wolff emphasized this battle during the team’s car launch, rather than attempting to catch up to the dominant Red Bull.
Wolff stated, “We made mistakes with the new regulations, but when you look back, you’ll see that we finished first eight times in a row, and then third and second in the constructors’ championship. It appears to be a respectable result. However, this does not account for another team and driver winning most of the races. Our goal is to solidify our positions among Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin and be at the forefront of that group. Simultaneously, we aim to compete at the very front.”
“We are determined to achieve this, but we understand the difficulty because we are a step behind our main competitor, who got it right from the beginning. However, we embrace the challenge, and that’s why we are all eager to see the car we will be driving.”
While Mercedes has encountered specific issues since the regulation change, their main problem has been their inability to accurately predict and model the performance of their car. They have often been caught off guard during the first practice session of a race weekend when they realize that their car is not performing as expected. Even their only victory under the new regulations, at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, was a race where they anticipated being relatively uncompetitive compared to the rest of the season.
However, with the introduction of a completely redesigned car for 2024, Wolff is confident that Mercedes has finally resolved this issue. He is looking forward to testing the car during their shakedown run and the pre-season testing in Bahrain.
“I believe the most important thing is to look inward and analyze what went wrong. Why does the virtual world not align with the real world?” Wolff added. “I believe we have found some clues and have taken steps to eliminate possible variables. We understand that it’s difficult and it’s a challenging task to climb a mountain when a team like Red Bull was so far ahead last year. However, we have an exceptional driver combination, and hopefully, the factory is fully committed to our success. We have all the right ingredients.”
According to the Source total-motorsport.com