Toto Wolff plays down Mercedes pace after difficult Australian GP practice

Toto Wolff believes Mercedes’ performance in practice proves that his team may not be the favourites at the start of this season.

Pre-season rumours had suggested Mercedes could be the team and power unit manufacturer to beat at the start of the new regulation cycle, but team boss Toto Wolff has admitted his team does have “surmountable” challenges to overcome first.

Toto Wolff: Mercedes faced software teething issues in Australia practice

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Amidst the backdrop of rumours about the strength of the new Mercedes power unit and a very strong opening salvo in the Barcelona shakedown at the end of January, the Brackley-based squad had a slightly more difficult Bahrain testing period.

Despite reliability issues sprinkled across the six days, mostly affecting Kimi Antonelli’s running during the first test, Mercedes achieved the most laps of any team in the second test, despite a pneumatic issue affecting Antonelli on the final day.

It’s led to a somewhat unclear picture as to where Mercedes’ W17 truly is in the pecking order as the season begins this weekend in Australia, where George Russell placed seventh and Antonelli eighth, more than a second off the pace of the frontrunning Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Speaking in the FIA press conference shortly after FP1, Wolff said his team are facing some issues to start the season.

“Yeah, they can be overcome, because we’ve seen FP1 today was much more challenging than the Bahrain tests, for example,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at the Australian Grand Prix.

“So it’s not inherent problems that we have in the hardware; some of the software is just teething problems.

“Now, having said that, I’ve always stated that I think that Red Bull and Ferrari are very fast, and people try to continue to talk us up, and that’s flattering.

“But I’m not sure it’s 100 per cent the reality, and certainly not what we have seen in FP1.”

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While not going into specifics about the challenges facing the Mercedes garage at this point of the weekend, Wolff said he anticipates being “alright” as the event ramps up.

“We are certainly not in the magnitude of problems that Adrian [Newey] has,” he said, referring to the Aston Martin team boss sitting alongside in the press conference.

“But it was a difficult burst today, also for us, but not unexpected, I guess, when you start with new regulations.

“We weren’t in such a good place on the chassis side, power unit side, but all things that are surmountable, quite some interesting, exciting challenges to overcome for FP2 and the rest of the weekend.

“But I would say we are where we are, and that’s going to be alright.”

While the W17 showed strong consistency and pace when running smoothly in Barcelona and Bahrain, Wolff said he isn’t going into the new season brimming with confidence that the Brackley-based squad can challenge for race victories from the get-go.

“In 15 years or so, I have never been confident,” he said.

“And, even if we started the season magnificently, I’ve never been confident enough to say that we are going to be fast, or we’re on a podium at the end of the race weekend, and that is no different this year.

“I’m not going to say that because, simply, we don’t know. We had a challenging FP1, but not out of the ordinary.

“So we’ve just got to put the work in step-by-step, do it calmly, and then hopefully be fast enough to fight for a podium or win on Sunday. But it’s not a given.”

The main obstacle to this, at present, appears to be grounded in the reliability aspect, particularly given the late concerns that struck the W17 on the final day in Bahrain.

These concerns, Wolff explained, are not related to any isolated area of the power unit or the chassis.

“The reliability is always an issue, particularly with new cars and new power units. They say, ‘in order to finish first, first you have to finish’,” he said.

“I guess that’s going to be the motto for this first couple of Grands Prix, to say where our limitations, where our reliability worries are on either component or any component in the car.

“So no, [I’m] not particularly worried about one reliability issue related to the engine, but it’s more the overall car concept.”

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