Toto Wolff believes Mercedes must leave "no stone unturned" when developing their Formula 1 car for the 2024 season. The team switched car concepts after the first few races of 2023 after it was clear its older car concept, which featured the distinct zero sidepods, was not going to yield the results on track. The current W14 is closer to the Red Bull concept, but Wolff feels Mercedes needs to explore more options if they want to return to championship challenging form. "We need a lot of changes for 2024 and the direction our team is developing is really quite interesting," he explained to media, including RacingNews365. "We see opportunities and we're not shying away of leaving no stone unturned and looking at every single concept. "Every single concept that we've seen on other cars, whether that's powerful or not or any use for us without letting ourselves be distracted from the way we operate and analyse."
Wolff: I wouldn't give up on a season
When asked if Mercedes would be willing to "give up" on their current season to focus on next year, Wolff was clear with his stance: "I wouldn't want to give up any season." Many of the teams have been able to utilise F1's aerodynamic testing restrictions, which limits the amount of wind tunnel testing runs and computational fluid dynamic hours they have to develop their car based on where they finished in the championship last season. “You can see how McLaren has leapfrogged everybody else with an update they didn't expect to come in that powerful - whatever it was they gained a second out of it,” Wolff added. "They leapfrogged Aston Martin and Ferrari who were seen as really strong contenders at the beginning of the season, and now they're nowhere. "We just need to continue working and chipping away at our understanding and unlocking potential in the car, as Aston Martin did over the winter or McLaren over the season."
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