F1 News: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff feels putting 'too much' pressure on his team during 2022 F1 season helped identify their strengths and weaknesses

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff claimed that there was plenty to learn from the struggles that the team faced over the course of the 2022 F1 season. With the introduction of new technical regulations this season, Mercedes started off the year on a rather weak note. They subsequently took months to get to a position where they could fight for a race win, let alone the championship.

Wolff believes that the pressure of having to live up to the success the team has seen in the past in a way helped Mercedes recognize their 'strengths and weaknesses'.

Speaking on the Beyond The Grid podcast, the Austrian said:

"I think we had our moments. When I look back, [where] there was a certain degree of pressure, maybe too much that I put on the organisation at times. But it made me learn, learn about the strengths and the weaknesses of the organisation. At the end, it comes back to the sentence, 'the days we lose are the days our competitors will regret', because [that's when] we learn the most and, hopefully, the future will be proof of that."

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on a rollercoaster of a season

Toto Wolff admitted that the ups and downs of the 2022 season for Mercedes posed the challenge of managing expectations and keeping spirits up. He emphasized the endless issues that the team has faced over the course of the year -- the low point of everything being their porpoising problem.

Reflecting on the season, Wolff said:

"I think when it sank in that we didn't really understand how to fix some of the car issues. It wasn't that it was the porpoising or whether it was a suspension problem. It was basically every stone you turned around had a problem."

"After Budapest [we went] into Spa [thinking], 'Well, are we able to challenge the frontrunners?', and you find yourself in the midfield. But again, this is a lesson -- how you manage your own expectations, and how to handle if you fail."

While Lewis Hamilton lost his streak of having won a Grand Prix in every season he raced in, George Russell took his career-first win for the Silver Arrows at the Brazilian Grand Prix this year.