© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Toto Wolff says Aston Martin changed their development approach “and they came back strong”, so if Mercedes does the same “maybe” they can “come back strong and chase the Red Bulls”.
After Mercedes’ disappointing performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Toto Wolff was asked by the media “what’s next” for the team.
“That’s a good question,” the Austrian said.
“We will tackle that straight at the beginning of the week because where we are is…
“When you look at where we were at the end of the season, where it seems like we caught up a lot, it was just a matter of which circuit suited us and which not.
“I think we’ve almost doubled if not tripled [the deficit] to get to Red Bull. This is what we need to look at.
“Everything in between, the Ferraris, the Astons, that’s just a sideshow.”
Wolff also complimented Martin Whitmarsh, Group CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, for his team’s amazing step forward since last year.
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“What Martin was able to achieve, he’s a good inspiration because they can come back from two seconds off the pace to be the second quickest team, probably, on the read.
“And with us… everything’s bad. Maybe the single lap was still good but in the race we saw the consequences.
“To put it bluntly just we were lacking downforce, and when you’re lacking downforce you’re sliding the tyres, and sliding the tyres is going backwards.”
After Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying, Toto said Mercedes will have to change its car concept, and after the race on Sunday, he added that his team can look to Aston Martin, who had to make the same decision after last year.
“We’ve lost a year in development in order to have a steeper development curve and you just need to take these decisions.
“As I said before, Aston Martin took that decision, and they came back strong. So if we start from our base, maybe we can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls.
“That’s the ambition,” Wolff concluded.
