"This one is the best of the bad bunch": Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's stark admission about the W15

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that the 2024 F1 challenger is the "best of the bad bunch" that the team has produced in the ground effect era. It does come as a surprise to many as the team continues to reel from its worst start to a season in the ground effect era.

Mercedes dominated the sport from 2014 to 2021 and won eight consecutive titles. The regulations change to the ground effect era has proven to be the team's kryptonite. The team gambled on an outlandish zero sidepod concept that failed miserably in 2022. In 2023, the team once again persisted with the same but gave up on the car concept completely after the first few races.

The 2024 F1 season was supposed to be better for Mercedes, as the team is going with a more conventional car concept. Unfortunately, that has not translated into results. Compared to the last two seasons, 2024 has been much worse, and the team has not threatened the podium even once.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, however, feels that the current car is the best that the team has produced in the last three years. Talking to Fox Sports, Wolff said:

"It’s a little bit the same since two years. I think this one is the best of the bad [bunch], so it’s a better platform to work on, but it’s still not a car that a driver feels really good about throwing into the corner at 200mph."

He added:

“We introduced new regulations two years ago, which are not so new anymore, and we are struggling. We won eight times in a row, but you can’t count on that. It’s been more difficult years and Red Bull is very much at the top and then it’s a gang of Ferrari, McLaren and maybe ourselves.”

---

Mercedes boss suspects car's fundamental issues not solved

Toto Wolff has said that the change in regulations in 2022 caught Mercedes out. The same simulation tools and approach that had helped the team win eight consecutive titles just didn't work in the ground effect era.

The Austrian suspects that even though there have been wholesale changes made to the car in the last couple of years, the fundamental issues have not been solved. He said:

“I think we lost our way at the beginning of ’22, because all our tools and systems gave us cars that were winning Championships every single year and then the new regulations were very much around the ground effect."

He added:

“We came out with a car that showed all the promise in the data and in the wind tunnel, but we didn’t deliver. Since then we’ve changed everything – from the layout, the suspension, the driver’s position, the gearbox – but it seems that we haven’t solved the fundamental issues at the core."

Mercedes is currently P4 in the championship after the first three races. It is the first time in the ground effect era that the team has not secured even a single podium in the first three races of the season.