Toto Wolff: Course for 2024

Toto Wolff believes that as Mercedes has set the direction of car modernization this year, it is time to prepare for next season.

The start of the championship was not easy for Mercedes, but in Barcelona the team presented a very large-scale series of updates, after which the W14 brought stability and efficiency. The team approached the summer break and confidently took second place in the Constructors’ Championship. Now priorities are changing and working on a new car is coming to the fore.

“Towards 2024, and our sails are already set,” Wolff tells Racer. “We are still working on some new products that will be released at W14, but I believe now is the right time to move on to preparations for next year. A lot can be optimized on our current machine without too much focus on innovation.

Let’s see how much we can improve the efficiency of the machine as we continue to collect information that will come in handy next year. The more we can discover now, the better prepared we will be for the 2024 Championship and beyond.

The positive thing is that we have definitely found the right development directions and understand what needs to be done to increase the speed of the machine. The process of acquiring this knowledge was painful, because it took time to thoroughly recreate the car, when the decision was made to change the direction of modernization. In addition, it took a lot of effort from everyone who works with the machine, but now there is already light at the end of the tunnel.

The season is also going well in terms of powertrains, with Mercedes-AMG HPP’s engine division working hard to provide us with engines that are considered among the most powerful in Formula 1.

Here the key role is played by the interaction of different departments of the team. There has never been such a fruitful collaboration between Brackley and Brixworth. If we talk about the power plants, then everything is going well this season. Last year their modernization was frozen, since this year there is a moratorium on software development, so the range of possible work is limited. However, this does not deter motorists and we see that our power stations are distinguished by a remarkable reliability in combination with a high efficiency.

This fully applies to our customer teams. The first half of the season was also positive for them, albeit to varying degrees, which is also a testament to the work our mechanics are doing.”