Toto Wolff has questioned whether Mercedes has been "ambitious" enough in setting its targets ahead of the 2026 rules revolution in F1.
Mercedes is considered to be the favourite heading into the 2026 overhaul, with radical changes being made to both the power unit and the chassis, owing to how it performed when the turbo hybrids were first introduced in 2014.
For 2026, the power units are set to feature three times as much electrical energy, up to 350kw, with the MGU-H removed, along with 100% synthetic fuels being used.
On-track testing of the new breed of car is to begin next month with a behind-closed-door test in Barcelona before official pre-season testing in Bahrain in February.
However, owing to the scale of the changes, Wolff is unsure whether Mercedes' preparations have gone far enough.
"It is super difficult to predict," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.
"Because we set ourselves targets that we are on track to meet, but whether those targets we set were ambitious enough, and whether those targets have been set in the right place in terms of priorities, only the future will show.
"I remember [in 2013] the press conference in Brazil where I was calculating with a pen and paper what points we needed to finish second in the championship, we ended up winning three races, and the P2 was certainly a lot more cheerful than [2025], considering where we came from.
"In 2014, I had the feeling already in the winter when we were the first ones running a full car dyno, the engine was more reliable than with others, and on day one of testing, nobody did the laps we did, and it was the same on day two.
"So it is not comparable, I would say that the grid is just much more competitive than it was in previous years."
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