Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff, acknowledges that the team’s upgrades for the Monaco Grand Prix will not close the gap to Red Bull Racing but believes they will be a step forward in performance.
Red Bull Racing has dominated the 2023 Formula 1 season, winning all five races thus far. Mercedes, on the other hand, has struggled to keep up with their rivals, with their closest finish to the race winner being 25 seconds behind, except for the race in Australia which had a red flag restart on the final lap.
After crossing the line in Bahrain 50 seconds behind Max Verstappen, Mercedes driver George Russell managed to reduce the deficit to just 25 seconds in Saudi Arabia. However, in Azerbaijan, the gap increased to 46 seconds, and in Miami, Lewis Hamilton finished 33 seconds off the pace.
The team’s disappointing start to the season led Wolff to admit that without significant changes to the car, Mercedes would likely not win a race. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was expected to be the race where the revamped car would debut, but it was canceled due to adverse weather conditions.
As a result, the Monaco Grand Prix will be the first race where Mercedes will compete with the “completely” revamped car. Wolff acknowledged that the upgrades are not expected to bridge the gap to Red Bull entirely but hopes for an improvement.
While Wolff expressed optimism about the upgrades, he also noted that closing the gap to Red Bull is not something that will happen overnight.
Wolff stated, “Unfortunately, that won’t happen any time soon. But I’m hoping for a step forward.” He explained that Mercedes had to react to Red Bull’s dominance and made changes to the underbody, bodywork, and front wheel suspension as they couldn’t find a solution to make the old car faster.
Responding to Hamilton’s statement about hoping for a one-second improvement, Wolff stressed that there are no miracles in Formula 1 and expects the team to have fewer problems and work with a more competitive car, rather than achieving a significant leap in performance.
There has been speculation regarding Mercedes’ revamped bodywork and whether it would lead to a change in their controversial zero-pods design. While some expect significant changes, others believe the team will continue with the existing car design while making adjustments based on improved testing and correlation between modeling, CFD, and wind tunnel data.
The Formula 1 community eagerly awaits the Monaco Grand Prix to see how the revamped Mercedes performs and if it can provide the team with a competitive edge against the dominant Red Bull Racing.
