First, it was Toto Wolff suggesting the upgrades are no magic bullet, then George Russell asking to keep the expectations under check and now Wolff again has come out to curb Lewis Hamilton’s miracle hopes to turn the W14 into a rocketship. Despite the massive change in concept and in Personnel with James Allison coming back, Toto Wolff is still not 100% sure about the package as he sees eye to eye with George Russell. Let’s see how things are panning out at Mercedes.

The 2023 season just keeps getting painful race by race for the Mercedes fans. The Silver Arrows promised upgrades for Baku, but they never arrived in Baku. One Mercedes was eliminated in both Baku and Miami GP in Q2. George Russell recently opened up about the expectations from the Imola upgrades and suggested that simulation numbers are not everything, as F1 is not straightforward. The Briton added how he doesn’t expect a quick turnaround with Red Bull still being the team to beat.

Toto Wolff recently added to Russell’s comments and suggested that the new upgrades are showing a good step in terms of performance. Nevertheless, the zeropod concept also showed good numbers but was met with multiple problems on track. Wolff explained how, despite being a big change, the expectations need to be kept in check. He added how in his 15 years of experience in F1 he has never seen a sudden mid-season jump that makes a car a rocketship and that is where his doubts lie. 

According to auto-motor-und-sport.de, Toto Wolff said, “The upgrade package is a big intervention. In the virtual world, it promises a good step in terms of lap time. But we have to curb our expectations. In my 15 years in Formula 1, I have not yet seen that someone suddenly came with a miracle weapon that suddenly brought half a second. That’s why I have my doubts that this is the case here.”

Read More: War of Words Erupts as Christian Horner Dismisses Wolff’s

Despite the odd performance drop, the old concept did show signs of pace in races. However, the problems and uncertainty with the car were too big a problem for Mercedes to continue the development of this concept, as Toto Wolff explained.

Toto Wolff on the new package being a solid platform for further development 

Mercedes will be getting rid of the zeropods and bringing new bodywork to Imola along with a new front suspension and floor for the W14. Wolff explained how the team did not fully understand the previous concept which hindered the upgrade potential. The goal is to provide a stable platform for future upgrades and an attempt to find the right direction for development. 

According to auto-motor-und-sport.de, Toto Wolff said, “We fear that there is something in our car that we don’t understand. That’s why our goal with the upgrade is to eliminate certain variables. We finally want to get a stable platform, which we can then develop further.”

Further adding, “The upgrade will show us the direction in which we will have to go in the future. We hope to find out the areas that are responsible for the fact that the current car is so toxic to drive.”

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What do you make of Toto Wolff’s comments?