Mercedes boss admits achieving ‘very high targets’ amidst underwhelming Bahrain GP performance

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that the targets the team had set pre-season for its car were achieved.

The issue, though, with those targets was the fact that the team did not envision other teams setting a more ambitious target and reaching them. Mercedes did not have the best start to the 2023 season, as the car was only the fourth fastest on the grid at the season-opening Bahrain GP.

Lewis Hamilton could only muster a P5 finish, while his Mercedes teammate George Russell was further behind in P7. Talking to the media including RacingNews365, Wolff said that the team had in fact reached the pre-season targets they had set. The competitors, though, were able to achieve even more during the winter break. He said:

"We set ourselves very high targets, and we've achieved those high targets. I think it's where we set those targets, all of us collectively, and how we need to maybe change the perspective which is an interesting exercise. It is also something I'm looking forward to."

He added:

"I'd rather win every single race and continue to win championship after championship, but this is now the real challenge, and for me it is an interesting one, as painful as it is today. It is pretty clear where we should be going; we just need to make the data work, and I think the most important thing is re-establishing a baseline to say: 'This is where we are and that there are no surprises in the other direction.'"

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We've already looked at different concepts - Mercedes boss

Toto Wolff also added that the team are looking at different concepts they may need to take as the season progresses. Since the pre-season test, the team has been working and has looked at other ideas. He said:

"We've looked at other ideas and haven't stood still. That's not only in the two weeks when we saw that we haven't been able to close the gap, but we've done it for a while just to be open-minded, and still with an emphasis on making this (concept) work. But we've already looked at different concepts."

Mercedes had their worse start to the season since 2013 at Bahrain, marking the first time they had no driver on the podium in the season opener. Since the inception of the turbo-hybrid era, the team has started every other season with either a win or a podium.