LONDON, CMC – Team boss Toto Wolff said Mercedes will work diligently to produce a W15 car for British race driver Lewis Hamilton that will enable him to challenge for another Formula 1 world title next year.
Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, whose heritage is Grenadian, ended the season third in the drivers’ championship, though he endured a second consecutive winless season in the cockpit for the Mercedes racing team.
Mercedes won the constructors’ title eight years in a row from 2014 to 2021, but the Red Bull racing team ended their streak and delivered successive world titles with Dutchman Max Verstappen at the wheel.
Part of the challenge for Mercedes has been adapting to the new set of car design regulations that will govern the sport until 2026 – but Wolff said his team was not prepared to sit idly and not try to overcome them.
“I don’t want to give up on the recovery and say, ‘Well, let’s wait for 2026, new car, new engine’,” he told the Motorsport.com website.
“There are two more important years to go. I want it to testify to the team’s strengths that we can recover and race for championships. That’s our clear objective.”
Hamilton recently signed a two-season extension with Mercedes, keeping him with the team until the end of 2025, but he will be desperate to turn his fortunes around and challenge Verstappen for the driver’s title.
Wolff said it would be difficult to catch up to the RBs, even if others have shown that making significant performance jumps in a relatively short time is possible.
“Looking at the odds, very difficult,” he said. “Looking at performances of other teams, how Aston Martin has done over the winter [from 2022 into 2023], McLaren recovered a second with an upgrade they expected to come in at 0.25 seconds…
“There is a sweet spot to find that unlocks more potential. The most significant contributor is that the drivers start to have a car they can trust, which they can’t now [with the outgoing Mercedes W14].
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