The top teams outside Red Bull are struggling in Formula 1. For two years now, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin have had to watch the Austrian racing stable win almost everything. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff tells La Gazzetta dello Sport why the W14 is not a winning car.

It is frustrating for the German team that has dominated Formula 1 for years. Since the change in regulations, the racing stable has won just one Grand Prix. And this while its 2021 rival, Red Bull Racing, is doing very well. The Austrian team managed to win no fewer than 16 out of 17 races in 2023 so far.

Wolff explains why he thinks the W14 is not a winning car: "During some weekends the car does things that we can't find in the factory-produced simulations, ways outside the box. We, Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren experience the same situation. We are second among the constructors because we have been used to optimising results for years but, apart from Verstappen, nobody seems to have the perfect car and control over what it does."

Wolff sees problem with W14

The team boss says that changes will be made for next season: "For 2024 we will change a lot, trying to get back to basics. I don't want to hear any more Lewis saying 'I'm sitting too far forward with the cockpit', suspension kinematics that we don't understand and so on. We go hard on what we understand, and what we don't understand we have to put aside: it's not technical sophistication but solid engineering. The biggest problem is that the drivers have no confidence in the FW14, on and off to boot. When they corner they don't know how the car will behave, perhaps with different feeling between Hamilton and Russell despite them adopting the same set-up."