F1 News
Wolff sees McLaren win constructors' title: 'Also a success for us!'
Thanks to Lando Norris' fourth victory of the season in Abu Dhabi, McLaren could secure the constructors' title against Ferrari. Rival team principal Toto Wolff explained why he is not disappointed about losing to the Woking-based team.
Of course, the McLaren cars are equipped with Mercedes power units, similarly to the last time they won this title back in 1998. The Woking-based team parted ways with the Germans after the 2014 season, and after spells with Honda and Renault, they returned to using Mercedes engines in 2021.
"If we can't win as a works team, I'd much rather be beaten by our customers," Toto Wolff began to GPblog and others in Abu Dhabi, where McLaren could keep their lead to be crowned champions.
The Austrian is satisfied to see the Mercedes power unit deliver. "I have zero problem with that because it shows us the benchmark. There's no discussions about performance levels of the engine, no discussions about drivability of the engine, energy deployment or harvesting. None of that."
Wolff therefore draws the conclusion they now have to find where they need to improve to match McLaren. "The World Champion is our customer team with equal material, we fight for the same chance. They have a better chassis, or a better execution or better drivers, then that's completely fine for us. This is a success also from Mercedes Motorsport, a success for Mercedes and a success for HPP. We know that our work team is by far the primary objective to win"
'Want to be there on merit'
The team principal and CEO also hopes Mercedes could continue to battle with McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull next season too. "I think you can see that at least when you look at the wins this year, Red Bull’s year has been defined by the victories at the beginning of the year. But you would have a much bigger delta. If you look from half a year, those four teams are really close. I think McLaren won six, Ferrari five, us four, Red Bull, I don't know. So, this is it. We'd love to be in a fight with the other teams. We'd love to compete for victories on merit, but it's not a given," Wolff concluded.
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