Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has denied the team’s struggles to match its previous heights should see its recent Formula 1 seasons be regarded as a complete “failure”.
The German marque entered the most recent regulation change in 2022 billed as the team to beat having won an unprecedented eight successive Constructors’ titles.
However, Mercedes has been unable to replicate that success as troubles getting to grips with the current ground effect cars have seen it slip to fourth place in 2024.
Mercedes has encountered several false dawns over recent campaigns, including earlier this term when it took three victories in four races prior to the summer break.
But that promise has dissipated since the season resumed, with Lewis Hamilton, who triumphed at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, enduring a nightmare period.
The Briton, who will head to Ferrari in 2025, expressed that he couldn’t wait for the conclusion of the season to come amid a wretched weekend in Brazil last time out.
Wolff, though, has dismissed that Hamilton’s spell with Mercedes being poised to end on a whimper will overshadow the mass success the partnership has produced.
“It’s the most competitive motorsport in the world and we were lucky and blessed with winning eight consecutive World Championship titles,” Wolff told media including Motorsport Week in Las Vegas. “That wasn’t done before in any other sport. And Lewis won seven Drivers’ championships.
“You cannot extrapolate from that that you’re going to win forever or that you’re in the hunt for every single championship. That doesn’t happen.
“And the regs were changed twice and we maintained the level of performance and won championships.
“And then we’ve just been caught out by these new regulations in 2022.
“Until today, we’re just not able to put steady performance on the car and provide the drivers with something that is predictable, that has enough downforce, that doesn’t bounce or hop, that rides where the ride is acceptable, where the tyre degradation can be managed in the right way and not be too cold or too hot. And that is how sport goes. That’s very easy.
“I don’t know where I read that or where I heard that, but a basketballer was asked whether he felt that his season was a failure.
And he said, Michael Jordan played 12 seasons or whatever, he won six championships… Were the other six a failure?
“And I think we’ve been together 12 years now in this championship and we won eight. Are the other ones a failure?
“We finished third two years ago, we finished second last year, bearing in mind we haven’t won a race, and we won three this year. So that is not all a failure.
“That was a pretty good spell for Mercedes and for Lewis.
“And we will be trying to do it better. We are trying to do it better every single day, every single weekend. And the same will be next season and then the big one in ‘26.”
Wolff clarifies ‘shelf life’ comment on Hamilton
Wolff created headlines in the build-up to the race weekend as past quotes in a book saw him claim “everybody has a shelf life” in regard to Hamilton’s impending exit.
But although he soon clarified that the comment had been taken “out of context”, the Austrian has stressed that he holds zero regrets about delivering that statement.
“Well, I’ve said it very often about this world particularly, it’s taking a toll on all of us,” he highlighted. “We’re doing more than 20 races a year. We fly around.
“And what I said is that everybody has a shelf life and you don’t want to become from great to good. And that doesn’t exclude the drivers.
“And it’s still something that I stand by. I’m asking myself this question all the time. And so I do it for the organisation and for everybody around.”
Wolff denies special need to speak to Hamilton
Asked whether he sensed the need to speak with Hamilton upon the pair’s arrival in Las Vegas, Wolff responded: “Lewis and I speak, and we’ve always done so.
“And a sentence that correlates or a sentence that then happens is being made public on the weekend, particularly where he hasn’t been satisfied about his driving and about the car, then one plus one then makes it look bad.
“But one rule that we’ve established very early in our relationship is that we talk immediately and say ‘why did you say that?’ or ‘what did you mean?’ and that is what we have done.
“You know, that was one sentence in a book and there were 99 sentences in you know around the Brazil weekend and quotes in some interviews that I’ve given about Lewis where I clearly remark that he’s the greatest driver of all time and that if we are able to give him a quick car he’s going to be able to win, he’s able to fight for a championship but we have failed in doing so.”
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