Toto Wolff prefers to stay quiet about Mercedes’ F1 2025 chances
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is remaining cautious about his team's chances in F1 2025.
Toto Wolff says he would “rather not talk too much” about Mercedes’ chances heading into the 2025 F1 season.
Mercedes are hoping to mount a more consistent challenge in 2025 after a frustrating campaign last year.
Although the Silver Arrows won four races, the team were left puzzled by inconsistent performance swings with their W15 challenger and finished fourth in the constructors’ championship.
Now in the post-Lewis Hamilton era with George Russell joined by exciting teenage talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli, team principal Wolff is keen to avoid talking up Mercedes too much.
Instead, Wolff would like to wait and see how the team’s W16 car performs in pre-season testing in Bahrain at the end of this month.
“These cars are so complicated to hit the sweet spot, that we’ve only done it on a few occasions,” Wolff is quoted as saying by RacingNews365.
“We were ultra-dominant in Las Vegas [where it finished 1-2], and then at other tracks, we were unable to contest for a podium.
“So I’d rather not talk too much and see how we can perform in the tests and see whether we have solved some of those balance issues, get on top of the tyres and then we shall see.”
Wolff has already admitted Mercedes won’t totally “get rid” of their performance fluctuations during the upcoming season.
Mercedes scored a dominant 1-2 in Las Vegas, which took place in cool conditions, but were left baffled by their competitiveness. Meanwhile in warmer temperatures, the team had a clear car weakness.
“The trick is to be on the good side as often as possible,” he 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,” he said.
“We won’t be able to get rid of these fluctuations completely. We will also see them next year with all the teams.”
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