Wolff: 'Beating Red Bull in '24 is against all odds'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
For the second season in a row, Mercedes was deprived of a world championship. Indeed, no Grand Prix was won in 2023. Everyone in the German team is hoping for a turnaround in '24. Yet Toto Wolff expects it to be a hell of a task to catch up with Red Bull Racing.
"Red Bull started these regulations in 2022 with a massive advantage and was able to maintain it," Wolff told media - including GPblog - in Abu Dhabi. "We have a lot of respect for the achievement of the engineering side and the driver. Beating them under the current regulations is against the odds. That's clear."
Wolff sees McLaren as an example
Mercedes had to pull out all the stops to at least finish second among the constructors. Ferrari came very close, while McLaren also made considerable strides in recent months. This British team is an example for Wolff, as McLaren showed how, in a relatively short time, you could still bring an overly slow car to the front of the grid.
"At the same time we've seen with McLaren where an update unlocked a second a lap time or the AlphaTauri coming strong at the end, Aston Martin over the winter that there is there is a key to unlock dramatically more performance and I think us taking this honest assessment that this car is never going to be good enough to fight for Championship we've taken the decision in spring that we've got to that we're going to go back to the drawing board and come up with something new next year but mount everest is in front of us."