Mercedes brought a host of new improvements to its car to Monaco, and while it’s far from the ideal track to test their effectiveness, Toto Wolff is adamant his team is now moving in the right direction with the development of the W14.
Next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will give the Silver Arrows a much better idea of how their new parts are performing and, Wolff hopes, see them move closer to top pace.
“It is very difficult because we were in the mix with Aston Martin and with Ferrari I would say. But we really have to be careful, we have to go to Barcelona and collect more data. It’s a new baseline. I don’t expect we’re clearing Aston Martin and Ferrari [there],” he said.
“It’s more about understanding what this car does now, how to set it up and we’re really good at working hard.
“Even with the previous package, which was not that good or terrible at the beginning of the season, we still managed to win a race at Interlagos. [in 2022] in a dominant way, so we’re going to get there.”
Wolff admitted that the late rain “flattered” his team in Monaco, the timing of their pit stops being executed to perfection, putting them ahead of Ferrari on the road. And he admitted that there is much more to learn about the performance of his car since it has so many new parts.
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“I think we have been better in FP1 and FP2 than the rest of the weekend [this season], the more the track grips, the less performance we have. It’s really a lot of learning right now because everything is new.
“We just have to collect the data and set up the car in a good way. For the last two and a half, three years, we’ve had a really good race car and less qualifying car. So Sundays are looking more positive than it looks like on qualifying days.”
One of the highlights of the weekend for many fans was when both Hamilton’s W14 and Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull were later lifted above the circuit as the stewards carried them off the track, fully revealing the layout of the floor, which is a key component to this generation of ground effect cars, and something fans don’t normally see.
Wolff saw the funny side of the situation, calling it “installation art” and “unreal” before joking that more people could copy the Mercedes floor than Red Bull’s. But he admitted that while the team hasn’t had time to break down the differences yet, they will be taking a closer look at the two designs in the coming weeks.
“I think they had more to lose by showing their flat than ours,” was his final comment.