Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has admitted a lack of preparation for the current season by the team.
Wolff and Mercedes underestimated how the new aerodynamic rule changes introduced for this season would affect them. They believed their superiority from the previous seasons would see them through this one.
Unfortunately, their downplaying became an error. The regulations, which include a reduction to the size of the car floor, have severely affected the cars. In fact, they are a step slower, and are slower than title rivals Red Bull this season. It was only at the pre-season test in Bahrain that they understood they weren’t the fastest anymore.
“There has been a big thing that has affected us a lot,” Wolff said, as reported by racingnews365.com.
“The changed aerodynamic rules compared to 2020 have affected us much more than they affected Red Bull. It’s our fault though, that we underestimated this rule change. We had thought that the technical advantage we had in the previous season would be enough to cope with the change and still be the leader.
“It has turned out that this is not the case, we have not been able to cope with the regulatory change. We also saw that immediately during the test days in Bahrain, where we already saw that we had a problem. There we already saw that we had a big aerodynamic downforce problem.”
Solving the puzzle
Wolff admitted that although it was difficult initially to adapt to Red Bull’s flying start to the season, they have managed to salvage something as the season reached the summer break.
“It’s very difficult to solve the problem then and that’s why we have had a difficult time so far this season,” Wolff explained. “We have made progress, you can see that. Step by step we are trying to get back to our role.”
It has paid dividends, as Mercedes sit at the top of the Constructors’ Championship as things stand. However, Red Bull are every bit as capable as them this season, and there is still all to play for.
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