Mercedes Toto Wolff Hints at Radical Change After Same Feelings of 2022 Creep In

Toto Wolff Needs to Figure Out How a Customer Team Easily Passed Hamilton in Bahrain

Aston Martin has taken the 2023 Formula 1 scene by storm with their practice qualifying and now, race performance. To Mercedes, the dark clouds of the storm must feel like it is directly over them as a customer racing team, meaning they are made up of Mercedes parts and are a product of a Mercedes wind tunnel, were able to easily overtake Lewis Hamilton in the season premiere race. 

“It’s really amazing to see,” said Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton had a ton of compliments for former teammate, Fernando Alonso, and while that may be great for the Aston Martin team, it doesn't bode well for the engineers of Mercedes. 

“Yeah, it was fun for a moment,” he said. “But he was just in a different league. He was able to pull away immediately. I knew he was going to pass when I saw him coming closer.” - Lewis Hamilton

All this falls on Toto Wolff as he promised to make 2022 a distant memory. Even with his promise to make some changes to the W14, the 5th and 7th place finishes in Bahrain trigger deep disappointment amongst his drivers, team and fans. 

"There is nothing positive today......"I think we've almost doubled if not if not tripled the gap to Red Bull... and this is what we need to look at." Wolff Reported after the Race

With a heated Hamilton and a Wolff running out of patience with their engineers, it looks like the next couple of weeks are going to be an early test for the Mercedes team.