![]() Speaking at the W14 launch, Wolff said: “Our hopes and expectations are always to be capable of fighting for a World Championship. I think in terms of competence the team is awesome.As touched on, Mercedes enter 2023 looking to bounce back from a rollercoaster 2022 season, which started with severe porpoising but eventually yielded a return to winning ways – and third in the constructors’ standings – through plenty of hard work and a fair share of updates to the W13. Toto has done brilliant with succession planning. "They are still the best team in the paddock in terms of competence. They're still fighters and won't give up all hope. "They were four or five-tenths off in qualifying, which isn't that much. ![]() "If you need to change the concept completely, it's another step backwards to then have a bigger potential gain in the medium term because medium terms is years. They are standing in front of a difficult decision. It seems it was disadvantageous again and made it more difficult for them somehow. "They changed the regulations at the end of last year, lifting the floor up. "It sounds like they're in a difficult position, in a way maybe they didn't expect. "I'm going to do everything that's needed." Rosberg: Changing concept would be 'backwards step' "If I need to push him around the track to get the eighth I will," said Wolff. Hamilton is entering the final season of his £40m-a-year deal but earlier this week he said he has no plans to retire, even if Mercedes fail to deliver him a winning machine. Wolff's remarks will come as a major blow to Hamilton, 38, and his quest to take another championship before his career ends. Nico Rosberg says that Mercedes are in a 'difficult position' after Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh for Bahrain Grand Prix. "But I'm looking at what we can find next week, what is the change of direction that we can implement and how quickly can we do that? Maybe we can turn the ship around this year but it needs a lot to change the pecking order." "If you look at the pecking order today, you would say that catching Red Bull 'is not realistic'. We may find a silver bullet next week and gain five tenths, but I haven't seen any silver bullets before. "I don't know what is going to happen this year. "You know motor racing is crazy," said Wolff. Verstappen's 21st career pole on Saturday is further proof that his Red Bull machine is the class of the Formula One field. Yet they decided to evolve their concept rather than start from scratch, despite seeing rivals Red Bull adopt a completely different sidepod design to win 17 of last year's 22 rounds. Mercedes claimed just one victory last season with a machine Hamilton said he could not wait to consign to the history books. So we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction." We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn't work out. ![]() Sky F1's Ted Kravitz looks back at all the big talking points from qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. ![]() I need to fire myself if I want to do something. "At this team we blame the problem not the person. But the moment comes when the stopwatch comes out and that showed us that we are not good enough. That's why I say we gave it our best shot. "We gave it our best go over the winter and now we all just need to regroup, sit down with the engineers, be totally non-dogmatic and ask what is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be able to win races. He added to the written media: "I don't think that this package is going to be competitive eventually. "We are absolutely in the same choir," Wolff told Sky Sports F1. Despite only qualifying seventh, Lewis Hamilton was positive with the progress Mercedes have made so far in Bahrain and he's optimistic they can close the gap on the frontrunners.Īnd 24 hours later, team principal Wolff remarkably conceded that the Silver Arrows, the constructor which once dominated the sport, will have to abandon their controversial zero-sidepod concept in order to challenge again.
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