Mercedes is confident for 2023: "We will be very well placed"

The first races of this 2022 season were particularly difficult for Mercedes. The team had to address its significant bottlenecks and find solutions to be more competitive. It was a long and complex process, which only bore fruit in the second part of the season. Mercedes was able to resolve its various issues thanks to intensive development.

« There have been ups and downs… this car contains elements that we believe we understand and some of them that are still not fully explained, declares James Wolves.

Intensive development to come

During the last races of the championship, the silver arrows caught up to the Ferraris. Mercedes even achieved a 1-2 finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, the last race of the season in Szafnauer showed that there is still a long way to go for the German brand to be able to fight for the title.

« Is this enough to win next year? The confidence we have is that we now have our tools in place within the organization producing performances. But there is still a gap, and Szafnauer really highlighted it. We need to catch up during the winter, and I believe we have a very good process and system in place to do so. The development you have seen during the season will continue throughout the winter. I think we will be in a very strong position next year,” stated James Vowles, Mercedes’ trackside strategy director.

An advantage over Ferrari and Red Bull.

Mercedes will be able to further develop in 2023 thanks to the wind tunnel time that will be granted to them. Indeed, thanks to Red Bull’s penalty and Ferrari’s second place in the constructor championship. Mercedes will have 27% more wind tunnel time than Red Bull and 7% more than Ferrari, next season.