Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has claimed that his team would have struggled with the issues that were plaguing the W13 during the 2022 season even if there was no budget cap limitation.
Mercedes managed to win eight consecutive Constructors Championships from 2014 to 2021. Their run was stopped by Red Bull in the 2022 season as the silver arrows endured a tricky campaign with the new regulations kicking in.
The start of the season saw Lewis Hamilton and George Russell trying to fight the issue of porpoising. Mercedes tried their best to find the root of the issue and soon discovered that there were deeper problems in their car.
Mercedes finally did manage to get on top of all the issues and by the end of the season, they had managed to avoid a winless season. George Russell managed to get a victory for the team at the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, the team does need to make more changes to the car if they want to challenge for the title in 2023.
An additional challenge that every team faced during the 2022 season was that they were forced to work on their new cars under a $140 million budget cap. This cost cap made sure that richer teams couldn’t go about spending all they want to improve their cars.
Toto Wolff believes that even if there was no budget cap, Mercedes would have still struggled
However, Toto Wolff has claimed that the budget cap did not really make a difference when it came to solving the issues of the Mercedes W13. This is because either way, the issues needed to be solved gradually and it was a long process.
Talking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Toto Wolff said, “We’re not lacking the capability, or we weren’t lacking any of the tools, nor time.”
“It was more that we needed to peel off layer by layer in order to get to the ground of the problem. So it wouldn’t have changed anything.” Explained Toto Wolff
Mercedes had thought that they had solved all their problems when they brought in their first major upgrade package to the Spanish Grand Prix. However, the problems returned during the end of the season and a small amount of porpoising was seen during the Abu Dhabi GP.
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Toto Wolff explained that Mercedes hasn’t really solved all their issues, but they will be in a much better place by the time 2023 comes. He explained that the team are changing the architecture of the car and the car for the 2023 season would be much better.
