Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff has claimed that F1’s finances cap restrictions will not be the explanation behind their gradual begin to the 2023 season in Bahrain.
The German crew completed behind Crimson Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin in pure race tempo at P5 and P7, with Lewis Hamilton forward of George Russell.
After the race, Wolff steered that the crew may make radical modifications to the W14. He advised RacingNews365:
“It is extraordinarily troublesome to catch such a bonus [to Red Bull], nevertheless it’s what we have to do. We’ve no selection. I am undecided the finances cap actually provides you constraints within the place the place we’re in as a result of we simply must determine which course we’re going and put all of the sources behind it.
“I do not suppose we’re constrained by the finances cap. We’re not going to develop two automobiles side-by-side, however we’ll develop one automotive and we are going to determine within the subsequent days and weeks which automotive that will probably be.”
“We’re missing quite a lot of downforce, and we have quite a lot of work to do” – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton not too long ago mentioned he knew that the crew would face challenges after his first journey within the W14.
He advised F1.com:
“Yeah, I knew from the second I drove the automotive the place we had been and the challenges that we’d be dealing with. On a optimistic observe, not having the bouncing this 12 months is a big plus, and making an attempt to know what the issues had been while having bouncing actually masks so most of the [issues] – it makes it troublesome to determine what these are,”
Hamilton added:
“We’re missing quite a lot of downforce, and we have quite a lot of work to do so as to add extra to the automotive. As quickly as we put extra load on the entrance and rear, we will decide up our tempo. We have simply obtained to maintain working; we all know we’re not the place we should be. I’ve obtained to remain optimistic, preserve my head up and preserve pushing the crew. I will probably be a optimistic mild for them and get the most effective factors I can.”
It will likely be fascinating to see how Mercedes make use of the ‘proposed’ modifications to make their automotive extra aggressive within the upcoming races of the 2023 season.