Mercedes afraid to make predictions yet: 'Quite difficult'

Mercedes disappointed somewhat this year. Whereas in recent years the German formation invariably competed for the world title with Lewis Hamilton, it lagged well behind Red Bull Racing's performance in 2022. Mike Elliott hopes to turn the situation around soon, he told Formula1.com.

At Mercedes, it was soon clear this calendar year that winning the world championship was going to be difficult. Behind the scenes, the German racing stable therefore decided to invest a lot of time in developing the car, from which it hopes to benefit in 2023.

However, Mercedes' technical director finds it hard to say yet what the hard work will lead to. "Obviously, we’re well into next year’s car at the moment. I think in terms of trying to predict what sort of lap time you need to find, it’s quite difficult," he says.

Although Max Verstappen gloriously took the world title, Eliott feels that Mercedes were not hopeless all season. Indeed, he did see opportunities. "I think there are races this year [where] we’ve been very close [to the front]," Eliott said.