Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has made his most public admission yet of the difficulty the team has found themselves having been beaten by Red Bull and Ferrari this season.
After another difficult weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, Wolff referred to his desperate straits as a “dungeon” that was proving more difficult to deal with than anything the team had experienced before.
Max Verstappen won for Red Bull at Spa-Francorchamps with a dominant race through the field from 14th on the grid to a victory that underlined his ability and the extraordinary car he has this season. After 14 races and with eight to go, a second title is within reach, but Mercedes, in stark contrast, were once again let down by a car they still don’t understand and whose week-to-week performance remains an enigma .
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who has enjoyed Mercedes’ dominance by winning six titles with the team – which has won eight constructors’ titles in a row since 2014 – was almost two seconds off Verstappen’s pace in qualifying in Belgium, clearly indicating that it might not wait to move to next year’s model. Wolff admitted that it was difficult to cope with being relegated to an also run.
“They say you never lose, you learn, I can tell you it’s very hard,” he said. “All those cute Instagram posts and everything we’ve talked about for eight years, about how we’re going to do it when you get to the dungeon. To stick to your principles and values, keep your spirits high, and continue to relentlessly seek to improve? Phew. There’s more to write a book about this year than the last eight years.”
Hamilton’s run ended on the first lap when he hit Fernando Alonso for a pass at Les Combes, but once again the real conundrum facing Mercedes became apparent at Spa, leaving Wolff and the perplexed team Having been so slow in qualifying, they were much faster in the race, with George Russell taking fourth.
“It’s very difficult to deal with these changes,” Wolff said. “We had a totally inferior performance in qualifying and sometimes in the race we are three seconds faster per lap. There are big questions about what’s going on. It’s not where we should be with the structure and knowledge to understand a race car, but we don’t with this one.”
Hamilton said after qualifying that he couldn’t wait for next year’s car, but while his hopes are gone this season, the team has yet to make a firm decision on which route to take for its new model Wolff admitted that it was far from a simple decision and that changing a design concept was not an easy, or guaranteed, route to being competitive again.
“Everything we decide for next year has to be carefully evaluated because it’s clear that our data doesn’t give us the results, it doesn’t correlate with reality,” he said. “We have massive changes in performance that we really can’t overcome. At this point of making a decision for next year, changing a concept drastically, how can you be sure that this is the best direction to go because it is clear that you would start a way back?
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Wolff said his decision on next year’s car would be made in the coming weeks and indicated the team thought it could still go one better this season with Hamilton’s race-winning record every year he has competed in F1 online.
“There are racetracks that will suit our car, that’s our ambition,” he said. “But at the same time it’s clear to give a big focus to next year. The positions are where we are with the first three teams, finishing second or third makes no difference to me.”