Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has said that the difficult Formula 1 season in 2022 for the team was necessary to "re-energise" the organisation. Prior to 2022 they enjoyed an eight-year reign as Constructors' Champions - the longest of any team in the history of F1 - and seven Drivers' titles with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. But this year has been challenging for the team as they struggled to hit the ground running with the new regulations. The W13 suffered with bouncing and porpoising, and had aerodynamic drag issues at high-speed circuits. Wolff said the team had to analyse what went wrong to understand how they went from being a dominant force to barely being able to challenge for podiums. "We are analysing the reasons in the past for why teams that dominated over an era suddenly lost performance," he told media, including RacingNews365.com . "You can trace it back pretty well; a change the regulation, people leaving, a tyre that changed fundamentally. "For us the regulation changed, we got it wrong, but all the other pillars are still in place. "I'm 100% sure that this was a difficult year that was necessary for us to re-energise the organisation."
Lack of consecutive wins made Mercedes 'appreciate' Brazil win more
The Brazilian Grand Prix victory for George Russell marked nearly a year since Mercedes won their last race in Saudi Arabia in 2021. Wolff believes the victory made the team "appreciate" how it feels to win races again after one of their longest win droughts since 2013. He explained: "We won eight times in a row, more than 100 races and this year has let us come back down to the ground. "It made us appreciate how it feels when you win in Brazil and also understand how difficult it is to recover, not from a race like we've had it before, but from more than from many races that were just not good enough."
Most read
