Mercedes' ‘consistent’ upgrade plan revealed, but it comes with a warning

Following their disappointing start to the 2023 season, Mercedes are now pursuing a change in design philosophy to the one they had initially persisted with after a challenging 2022 campaign. 

After a difficult opening two races, the team enjoyed an upturn in form at the Australian Grand Prix, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualifying second and third in Melbourne, before Hamilton went on to claim Mercedes’ first podium of the season with second place behind Max Verstappen. 

But Wolff quickly cautioned that Mercedes would not get carried away with their encouraging performance swing and would remain focused on trying to close the significant deficit to dominant early pace-setters Red Bull. 

Over the Australia weekend, Wolff ruled out Mercedes introducing their first upgrades for the W14 until at least the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the end of May. 

He has since expanded on Mercedes’ development plan, revealing there will be a “consistent” flow of updates to come. 

"We will consistently be bringing upgrades to the car over the next few races, which is something to look forward to,” Wolff said in a Q&A published on Mercedes’ website. 

“But there is no such thing as a magic bullet that transforms the car, and it's about being realistic with your expectations. Hopefully we will see a steady improvement.”

Wolff insisted that Mercedes now have the understanding required to turn things around in their long-term quest to return to the front of the F1 grid. 

"We understand the knowledge that we need to recover,” he explained. “We need to have a steeper development curve than Red Bull and fundamentally, we want to compete for race wins. 

“They are setting the benchmark now. We trust in the process and in the people, and there will be setbacks. But if the trajectory is up, that's where we want to be heading.” 

While Wolff urged his team not to “oscillate too much between exuberance and depression”, he said there are positives to take from Mercedes’ performance in Australia. 

"In terms of car development, it is encouraging to see that within three races, we understand the car much better, we have defined a clear direction where we need to go and I believe we are on the right trajectory,” he added. 

"We need to consolidate our understanding and hopefully over the next few races we can make another step.”