Toto Wolff Confident Mercedes Have A Car They Can Work With

The Mercedes CEO says the team are ready for the challenge of the 2023 season.

Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has reflected on the pre-season testing in Bahrain and has said that he is confident they have a car they can work with. 

Wolff explained in a press release that the Brackley-based squad encountered some reliability issues on the first couple of days, however, they were able to make good progress on the last day. He said:

"We didn't have the smoothest winter test in Bahrain. We had some reliability problems and struggled with the car set-up on day two.

"But the key objective was to learn about the car, and we did lots of learning. We made good progress on the final day, which gave us directions to work on in the short period between the test and this weekend's race.

The CEO went on to add that they will not know for sure how competitive they are against the rest of the grid until the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend and that they feel they are in a stronger position to 12 months ago. He added:

"It's always hard to have a clear picture of competitiveness at pre-season testing - and even more so with only three days of data available. 

"Our expectations were that we would likely be playing catch-up to the front, based on how last year ended. That seems to be the case so far but we will only know for sure after this weekend. 

"Nevertheless, we are confident we have got a car we can work with and are in a stronger position than 12 months ago."

The Mercedes team are ready to come back fighting to be back at the top of the grid in 2023. Wolff continued:

"More importantly, we are relishing the challenge. This championship will be fought over 23 race weekends, and each one will give us an opportunity to improve.

"The start of a new season is always exciting, whether you've been working in this sport for a few decades, years or weeks.

"So much hard work has gone into the W14 over the winter and the anticipation to be get racing has kept on building. We will be going flat out this weekend - and are determined to keep that going to the final lap in Abu Dhabi.