\”Difficulties In Mercedes\’ 2023 Car Concept,\” Claims Toto Wolff, Deadline Nearing For Mercedes

The 2022 F1 Championship is almost out of Mercedes\’ hands. The first half of the championship saw limping Mercedes, yearning for the updates to work on their W13 design. However, not achieving even a single win led to disappointment for both the Mercedes\’ drivers and Boss Toto Wolff himself. The principal lately advised the team to keep up the work and focus on 2023 to tap a lead there from the very start. However, the scenario is not in the German outfit\’s favor. As per the recent news, Mercedes is facing \”difficult\” decisions about the Formula 1 car concept it will adopt for 2023.

Difficulty In Decisions For 2023 Car Concept

This year, Mercedes faced an ample amount of problems in their W13 design from the start. As a result, their best driver and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is in the sixth position in the 2022 driver\’s standings. George Russell, however, did a little better than Hamilton as he remained consistent and tried to score more podiums and points in almost all the races. Even still, Russell is in the fifth position in the race to win the Championship title, 114 points behind the leading Max Verstappen.

Now, when they have already lost this year\’s chance to put up themselves on the very top, Mercedes is trying to focus on the next year\’s championship. However, Toto Wolff has revealed that they need to evaluate the data and work on it carefully. This is because their current data does not give them the results and does not correlate with reality. As Toto stated, \”It\’s a very difficult situation because we obviously have a certain concept of a car, and it\’s not like we can experiment a lot this year [with the budget cap] this year, and just simply dial stuff out.\”

Amid so many problems, the Mercedes Boss is unsure how changing the concept will give them surety about the car. The Silver Arrows\’ design is unique with its \’zero sidepod\’ approach. And that makes it different from a Red Bull or Ferrari-inspired design. Wolff added that they only have a \”few weeks\” to determine their course for 2023.

Deadline Nearing For Mercedes

Toto Wolff has made it clear that they have a ton of decisions to make regarding their W14\’s design in very little time. According to him, September or early October will be the time to meet their deadline. The team has to come up with some solid decisions and approaches for their final 2023 concept. \”There are various cut-off points relating to the various parts of the car that happen really in the next few weeks,\” Wolff explained.

Apparently, the Silver Arrows have to commit to a chassis concept, suspension layout, cooling system, radiators as well as engine integration to complete the concept. And for that, the outfit needs to come up with better decisions in the next few weeks. At the same time, they have to continuously work on this year\’s remaining schedule.