Toto Wolff makes Mercedes demand amid fluctuation admission
Mercedes could continue to be plagued by performance fluctuations, Toto Wolff has admitted.
Toto Wolff has conceded Mercedes will struggle to “get rid” of their performance fluctuations during the 2025 F1 season.
Mercedes claimed four race victories split between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell last term but the level of their competitiveness swung dramatically throughout the campaign.
The Silver Arrows were unable to explain their dominance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where Russell led a convincing 1-2 finish, while on other weekends the team’s pace went missing.
And Mercedes team principal Wolff has admitted his side are unlikely to eradicate the problem completely heading into the new season.
Wolff says Mercedes are hoping that their W16 challenger will have a wider operating window than its predecessor, the W15.
“The trick is to be on the good side as often as possible,” Wolff told German publication Auto Motor und Sport.
“You start to correlate patterns – race tracks where your car is good, practice sessions where you pushed your car, tyre compounds with which the car harmonises better, track temperatures that are good for the car.
“I hope that we draw the right conclusions from this over the winter and adjust the development direction for the 2025 car.
“We won’t be able to get rid of these fluctuations completely. We will also see them next year with all the teams.”
Despite Mercedes’ struggles in particular, Wolff believes all of F1’s leading teams faced similar troubles to some extent throughout 2024.
“All four teams that won races [in 2024] have experienced these ups and downs,” Wolff added.
“Nobody has designed a car that was consistently good across all race tracks and all weather conditions.
“McLaren had a great car for maximum downforce and hot weather. The Ferrari was also more on that side.
“Our car was fast when there were fast corners and the temperatures were cold. The Red Bull could sometimes do one thing and sometimes the other.”
Russell will be partnered by 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli this year after the Italian replaced Hamilton following his shock switch to Ferrari.
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