Mercedes chief Toto Wolff during the Monaco Grand Prix

McLaren’s F1 surge leaves Toto Wolff regretting costly decision

16:47, 17 Jul

Updated: 16:48, 17 Jul

bySamson Ero

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has admitted his regret over a decision involving McLaren that has since come back to haunt his team. The Austrian motorsports chief reflected on agreeing to an engine deal with the Woking outfit for the foreseeable future.

The McLaren team, who endured a brief stint with Honda and subsequently Renault, opted to switch to Mercedes as their engine supplier in 2021. In 2023, the papaya-coloured team extended this partnership with Mercedes, signing a contract that runs until the end of 2030.

However, following the recent turn of events — with McLaren making a remarkable leap from a team battling at the tail end of the grid to now setting the pace — Wolff has admitted that the decision to sign such a lengthy engine supply deal may not have been the wisest. Speaking to Sky Sports Italia, the 53-year-old said:

“Look at where they were three, four years ago, when we signed the deal with them to use our fast engines for the next few years. Back then, they were 18th, and it was easy to make such a decision.

“With the knowledge I have today, I don’t know if it was the most intelligent choice of my life to make that deal with them, haha. They really have it all together in terms of engineering, and that’s why they’re performing so insanely well — especially in hot conditions.”

Powered by the Mercedes engine, the McLaren team has since gone on to secure the 2024 Constructors’ Championship and are currently on course to clinch another, boasting a 238-point lead over their nearest challengers, Scuderia Ferrari.

Toto Wolff admits why Mercedes lags behind McLaren

Toto Wolff also touched on why the McLaren team appears to have a significant advantage over his Mercedes outfit despite sharing similar engines. The motorsports chief explained that the Woking-based team has found a way to effectively optimise its all-round package, in contrast to the narrow working window Mercedes is currently dealing with.

“In Montreal, we did well with cooler temperatures, but in Austria, we’ve known for years that McLaren has it best,” Wolff explained. “Mercedes can fight for victory at one circuit, then fall more than a minute behind the next weekend.”

“It remains bizarre how big the difference in performance is across different circuits and conditions with these ground-effect cars. We won in Montreal but finished a minute behind in Austria, which is unacceptable for a team and brand like ours.”

So far, particularly since the switch to the ground-effect era in 2022, the Mercedes challenger has become synonymous with strong performances in cooler conditions — as was recently witnessed at the Canadian Grand Prix — but has, quite contrastingly, struggled in warmer temperatures.