Toto Wolff: Next W14 Concept Is In The Wind Tunnel Already

Things are moving quickly for the Mercedes team.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is determined to address the team's early-season struggles after a lack of downforce saw them fall behind rivals Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin in the opening race of the 2023 F1 season. Despite a disappointing start, Wolff has revealed that the new concept is already in the wind tunnel.

Pre-season testing revealed issues with the W14, but the team sounded optimistic about the performance come the race weekend. This was not the case, with the Mercedes cars qualifying P5 and P7. Despite this, chief of the Brackley team is adamant they can turn it around before it's too late. But, which direction should Mercedes take? Should they continue with their zero-pod design or should they follow their competitors' ideas?

“There are no holy cows,” Wolff told the media. “And [we need to] decide the development direction that we want to pursue, in order to be competitive, to win races.”

So what's next for the team?

“That’s a good question and we will tackle it straight at the beginning of the week.

“When you look at where we were at the end of the season, where it seemed like we caught up a lot and it was just matter of which circuits suited us and which not.

“I think we’ve almost doubled if not tripled [the deficit] to get to Red Bull. This is what we need to look at.

“Everything in between, the Ferraris, the Astons, that’s just a sideshow.”

The Austrian is drawing encouragement from the potential of an alternate concept already being trialed in Mercedes' wind tunnel:

“It’s been done in the wind tunnel, but it’s not just about the sidepods or how the car looks from the outside,” he admitted.

“We have to dig into the data and decide which direction to go in.”

He continued: 

“We’ve lost a year in development in order to have a steeper development curve and you just need to take these decisions.

"Aston Martin took that decision, and they came back strong. So if we start from our base, maybe we can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls. That’s the ambition.”

Despite their early struggles, Mercedes remains determined to compete at the highest level and challenge for race wins. What wasn't mentioned, however, was the timescale. I can't see Mercedes developing a winning car by the end of the season from such a deficit, but if the rumours are true that Mercedes is bringing back James Allison to help, then maybe they will...