F1 News
Does Wolff know who will be the man to beat in 2025? 'On a different planet'
Like everyone else in the paddock, Mercedes team principal, CEO and co-owner, Toto Wolff, saw that McLaren was on a different level during the three days teams spent testing their 2025 cars in Bahrain. However, the Austrian does point out that conditions during F1's winter testing were hardly representative.
All F1 teams, in an effort to understand the base set-up of their cars will try as many configurations as possible during pre-season testing, a 'trial and error' but necessary approach. "Sometimes you take junctions that go in the wrong direction," says Wolff to media including GPblog. "Maybe yesterday, we tried something in the afternoon that didn't function. It wasn't so good," added the Austrian about Mercedes' first day of testing at Bahrain.
Many times was the German team's 2024 car criticised on the radio for it's lack of consistency and balance changes throughout the cornering phases, which Wolff believes his team has begun to address with its 2025 car, the W16. "It's about having a car that gives more confidence. That was the thing we were missing last year. That was a bit unpredictable, and that seems to be a tiny step ahead."
Wolff sees this outlier as potential rival?
McLaren seemed like the team to be reckoned with, but Wolff sees that it may actually be a bit more crowded at the top, and Williams certainly made an impression on him. "We have no idea about fuel loads. Yesterday, Norris was on a different planet. Very, very good. Lewis [Hamilton] this morning, [Carlos] Sainz on the C2 [tyre compound], very impressive. So you really have no idea. And the conditions are really totally not representative," concluded Mercedes' top man.
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