© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Toto Wolff says he doesn’t “want any goalposts moved”, and says that Mercedes needs to “get better, meet our own expectations” and beat Red Bull “with their rules”.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes had a difficult and confusing time. In qualifying the team had one of its worst performances of the year, but in the race however, the W13 was much better again, possibly even ahead of Ferrari in terms of pace.
Team boss Toto Wolff explains Mercedes’ mindset as they try to tackle their challenges.
“Today, we’re getting it wrong,” the Austrian said.
“The non-correlation in the various areas is causing us to not perform.
“Now maybe there is a single thing that overshadows everything and therefore we are not doing it justice to question every part of the car.
“Are the tyres, something we fundamentally don’t understand, and actually all the rest is good? Is the aero or mechanical balance messing it up? That is so difficult.
“As we say, you never lose – you learn, and I can tell you it’s f***ing difficult.
“All these nice Instagram posts and everything we’ve talked about. How we are going to take this?
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“When you arrive there in the dungeon, you stick to your principles, your values, you keep the spirit up and really continue to relentlessly seek to get better.
“There’s more to write for a book about this year than the last eight years.”
One hope for Mercedes was that the FIA’s ‘anti-porpoising’ technical directive, which also outlaws ‘flexi-floors’ that Red Bull and Ferrari were suspected of using, will help close the gap to the top teams.
However, in Belgium Red Bull seemed to be even faster than before. Asked about his opinion on the Austrian team’s current performance, Wolff said:
“Fair credit to Max, how he is doing things, and Red Bull. The rules are the rules. I don’t want any goalposts moved.
“We just need to get better, meet our own expectations and beat them with their rules,” he concluded.
