Toto Wolff hopes to regain the pre-Singapore GP momentum with Mercedes during the Japan Grand Prix weekend. The team boss knows it will not be easy, but it will be important to also gather a lot of data heading into 2023. After all, Wolff cannot yet say that his team will be 100 per cent competing for the world championship again next year.
In an interview with Motorsport-Total.com Wolff indicated that it is of course the German racing stable's "goal" and "expectation" to regain the connection with Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Whether that will actually succeed, the 50-year-old Austrian does not know. "But I don't have 100 per cent confidence to say here: next year we will fight for the World Championship."
Mercedes still has a lot of work to do and it will not be done in no time. Wolff stresses that it takes time to rule out certain things and understand different things. Mercedes already has a much better picture of the W13's performance, but there are still question marks. Even at the end of the 2022 season, the behaviour of the bolide is still inexplicable at times.
Will Mercedes continue to build on W13?
Whether the Brackley-based racing stable in 2023 will stick to the same concept as this year is still unclear. The concept with the very narrow sidepods was very innovative at the beginning of the season and caused surprise among the other teams, but in the end, it got in Mercedes' way more than it saved time.