Toto Wolff has “changed mindset” amid Mercedes F1 recovery struggles

Toto Wolff says his mindset has changed amid Mercedes' ongoing F1 recovery struggles.

Despite revamping their F1 car for 2024 after a difficult pair of seasons, it has been another challenging start to the campaign for Mercedes with underwhelming performances in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Neither Lewis Hamilton or George Russell have yet been able to challenge for a podium, with Russell’s fifth place finish in Bahrain the best result the team have mustered so far.

But Wolff remains “100%” convinced his team can - and will - turn things around.

“I've changed my mindset,” Wolff explained. “I don't think that additional pressure on all of us makes it better.

“I think we have a problem with the physics. It is not by lack of trying or by the mindset or the motivation or energies. All of that is there, and I can see the buzz in the organisation.

“As racers, when we have such [disappointing] results, you're feeling down, but we're trying to change that with the right motivation for the week that comes. That's why we are believing that we can turn this around. We believe that our organisation can dig ourselves out. I'm 100% sure we can.”

Wolff revealed in Saudi Arabia that Mercedes are facing a “fundamental” issue with their new W15 car that is hampering its performance in high-speed corners.

He admitted the team do not currently understand the problem with Mercedes’ real-world performance not matching what the team’s data suggests.

“We had so many unknowns in the last year,” he said. “Where we started, we said, ‘okay this could be a reason’ and ‘this could be a reason’ and ‘this could be a reason.’ And we fixed that.

“I can see from the sensors that we have what we needed. But there is still this behaviour of the car in a certain speed range, where our sensors and simulation say this is where we should have the downforce, and we are not having it.

“This team has not been overconfident. We are probably the other way around. We see that glass half empty always. And that attitude stays, but this is also the attitude to fix it.”

Wolff added: “It is a different confidence that I have in the group this time around. At a certain stage, you're basically ticking all the boxes of the unknown, and where we are today, it's pretty clear where it points to. It's just my feeling that that we will come on top.

“Is this good enough to beat a Max [Verstappen] in a Red Bull? No, it's not. But at least bringing ourselves into a position of fighting for podiums and being right there, I'm 100% sure we are going to get there.”