Wolff provokes Horner: “I give credit where credit is due. He criticized the rules”

by VALERIO BARRETTA

Mercedes still chases Red Bull

Toto Wolff, just before the Bahrain tests, he was very confident about the new Mercedes. The W15, in fact, was a significant improvement over its predecessor, but in Formula 1 every step forward must be measured in relation to what others are doing. And, at least in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Mercedes wasn't even the second force.

Thanks to the progress of Ferrari and a Red Bull that seems to have pulled ahead of the competition thanks to the bold project of Adrian Newey, who was not satisfied with the advantage of 2023 and invested in a project that could have even greater potential. Wolff, it must be said, never requested a change in regulations, always paying due compliments to the Milton Keynes team. Those compliments that the Austrian believes did not come from the other side when Mercedes was dominating.

Wolff's words

“I don't want to fall into the trap of one of my colleagues, who ten years ago said that the regulation should have been changed because we were too dominant“, these are Wolff's words – taken from Autosport – in reference to Christian Horner.

“I think Red Bull has done by far the best job of anyone in the last two years, and so we must give credit to merit. They are moving further and further away and there is no one else nearby. They're in a different leagueand ours is an honest sport, where the best performances are rewarded“.

Experiments in Melbourne

The weak point of the W15 seems to be its behavior in fast corners, while in traction the car defends itself much better. This is why Brackley fears the Melbourne event, where they will conduct various experiments to try to improve the car and get at least a little closer to Red Bull. Which will be far away, but it was (in the opposite sense) also in 2020, before finding that way out that Mercedes and the others are now desperately looking for.