F1 News: Mercedes Chief Addresses Being Outperformed By Customer Team McLaren

Saajan Jogia | 2 Hours Ago

Toto Wolff 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, Friday - LAT Images / Mercedes Press Image

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has shared his thoughts on McLaren, a customer team, beating Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship this year. Despite the loss, he has no regrets or concerns about being outperformed by McLaren, which runs the same Mercedes engine. McLaren made an impressive resurgence this season, securing the Constructors' Championship with a commanding 198-point lead over Mercedes, which finished the campaign in fourth place overall.

The current ground effect era has proven challenging for most F1 teams in extracting maximum performance from their cars since 2022, with Red Bull being the standout exception until earlier in the season. Over time, however, teams gradually began addressing and overcoming these obstacles, with McLaren standing out as the most consistent and effective in refining its car's performance throughout the year.

The Papaya team unveiled a game-changing upgrade package at the Miami Grand Prix, which turned out to be a pivotal moment in the championship. McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris collectively achieved six Grand Prix victories, just three fewer than the dominant Red Bull. Their unwavering consistency throughout the season propelled McLaren to claim its first Constructors' Championship title since 1998.

While an aerodynamic advantage played a significant role, McLaren's MCL38 showcased the true potential of Mercedes' AMG M14 E Performance power unit, a capability Mercedes itself failed to exploit to the fullest. Despite the Brackley outfit making substantial progress compared to last year, going from a winless season to achieving four victories this year, it was still outperformed by a customer team.

Wolff, however, views this as a positive point, stating that if Mercedes cannot win, he would prefer being beaten by a customer team over any other rival. He emphasized that a customer team's victory was a win for Mercedes Motorsport and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP). He said:

“If we can’t win as a works team I’d much rather be beaten by a customer team.

“I have zero problem with that, it shows us where the benchmark is.

“There are no discussions about the performance level of the engine, no discussions about driveability of the engine, energy deployment and harvesting - none of that.”

He added:

“The world champion is our customer.

"With equal material, we fight on the same terms, if they have better execution, better drivers, then that’s completely fine for us.

“This is a success for Mercedes motorsport,  a success for HPP, whilst we know the works team is by far the primary objective to win.”