Boss Toto Wolff Reveals The Major Drawback Of Simulators! Claims It Did Not Resolve Porpoising

The last F1 season was the worst nightmare for the Mercedes Principal, Toto Wolff, and the rest of the team. With Wolff as Team Principal and Lewis Hamilton as their leading racer, Mercedes dominated the F1 Grid for six years (2014 to 2020). The Silver Arrows had a firm grip during the turbo era on the title. However, in 2021, everything changed. A controversial brake-testing tactic applied by Max Verstappen against the defending champion back then, Sir Lewis Hamilton, altered the dynamic of the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021 in favor of Red Bull.

The Dutchman is the back-to-back world champion. And currently, Red Bull is dominating the Grid. On the other hand, Toto Wolff and the Mercedes team are trying to find their way back to the title contention. The popular belief is that the two teams who will actually fight for the title in 2023 are Red Bull and Ferrari. The real competition will be between the current champion, Max Verstappen of Red Bull, and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Toto Wolff Explained Problems Mercedes Faced In 2022

The Silver Arrows is in no way in the picture. The reason for this situation is due to the terrible display of performance of the Team last season. The drivers more or less gave their best, but the main problem was with the porpoising issue of the W13 cars. A lot of speculations have been made if the downfall of the Silver Arrows in the last season was due to the new law of the FIA on Cost Cap. Toto Wolff has dismissed this theory as he mentioned, \”it was due to lack of testing, not because of cost cap or financing or anything.\” The Mercedes Boss claimed that the bad condition of the car was because of a lack of time to test the vehicle. The Wind Tunnel, simulations, and CFD could not fix the issue. The Team did not have enough information to know for sure.

According to Toto Wolff, the problem with a lot of bouncing was not helping the team understand if the wind tunnel was working as they wanted it to. There was not much time to complete all the testing of the car to be sure if it was ready. As it turned out, it was definitely not prepared. According to Hamilton, at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, the bouncing did not cause too much trouble. But the very next race, \”bouncing was back with a vengeance.\” Maybe because of the lack of bouncing issue, the Silver Arrows managed to win the Brazilian Grand Prix. The young Briton, George Russell, beat his seven-time champion teammate, Sir Lewis Hamilton, to win his first race. 

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Cost Cap

The Cost Cap issue troubled the Red Bull team in the 2022 season. They were even fined $7 million for exceeding the set limit. On the other hand, Toto Wolff has generally been very optimistic about the Cost Cap law. It is because he, too, believes this law would help all the teams. Not only the powerhouses of F1 Motorsport, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari compete with an equal budget.

There is only profit if the Team does well in the season. On the contrary, Toto Wolff also mentioned due to the cost cap law, the group had to go through restructuring. They had to make a new budget after subtracting a massive sum of money from their usual allotment. So it was hard to adapt to this new system.