Toto Wolff believes Mercedes 'can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls' with new car design

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff remains optimistic that his side can regain lost ground in the fight against Red Bull with a new car design.

Mercedes had hoped to put their miseries of 2022 and the W13 behind them during the winter break. The Silver Arrows found a solution for the porpoising and their rough ride owing to the stiff suspension of the car with the W14.

Unfortunately, there are more demons to be exorcized for the German team, who have persisted with their minimal sidepod design and remain an outlier on the current grid.

If pre-season testing was ominous for Toto Wolff and Co., the first race showed just how off the pace they are in comparison to the defending champions, Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in the 2023 F1 Bahrain GP, 51 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.

While speaking to the media after the race in Sakhir, Wolff admitted that Mercedes have a lot of work to do with regards to catching up to Red Bull at the front of the pack. He said:

"I think we’ve almost doubled if not tripled [the deficit] to get to Red Bull. This is what we need to look at. Everything in between, the Ferraris, the Astons, that’s just a sideshow. Everything is bad. The single-lap pace is still good but in the race we saw the consequences and to put it bluntly we are lacking downforce and sliding the tyres and going backwards."

The Austrian found solace in Aston Martin's brilliant showing over the race weekend. Fernando Alonso claimed a P3 finish on his debut for the team ahead of the two Mercedes drivers while teammate Lance Stroll split them in P6.

Aston Martin are Mercedes customers and use the same wind tunnel for their aerodynamics and CFD testing. Wolff added:

“We’ve lost a year in development in order to have a steeper development curve and you just need to take these decisions. Aston Martin took that decision, and they came back strong. So if we start from our base, maybe we can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls. That’s the ambition.”

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Mercedes need to decide the 'development direction' they must pursue going forward, claims Wolff

Mercedes may need to think outside the box if they are to catch up to the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the 2023 F1 season, according to team boss Toto Wolff.

After a chastening experience at the season opener in Sakhir, Wolff conceded that the team needs to follow a new direction in terms of car development. He said:

"I don't think this package is going to be competitive eventually. We have given it our best go and now we just need to all regroup and sit down with the engineers. There are no holy cows, and (we need to) decide the development direction that we want to pursue, in order to be competitive, to win races."

When asked if he had an idea for a viable starting point, the Austrian added:

“That’s a good question and we will tackle it straight at the beginning of the week. When you look at where we were at the end of the season, where it seemed like we caught up a lot and it was just matter of which circuits suited us and which not."

Mercedes intended to bring an updated package to the car for the sixth race of the season at Imola, but Wolff has since admitted that merely gaining two or three-tenths will not be enough to overhaul their current deficit to Red Bull.