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Mercedes' executive director Toto Wolff says that the team must not get ahead of themselves and should be wary of another title challenge in 2018. From 2014 to 2016, the Silver Arrows dominated the sport, winning both the drivers' and constructors' titles comfortably.
However, after a shake-up in the aerodynamic regulations for the 2017 season, Mercedes found itself under pressure from Ferrari. In the end, the German team came out on top once again, and F1's head of the technical department Ross Brawn voiced his concerns over a Mercedes domination next year,
"Well, Ross needs to blame himself partly for that!" Wolff told ESPN. "He set the initial cornerstones in place back in 2012 when the team struggled a lot, with hirings such as Aldo Costa, and they were down to him. He has a problem now, he's on the other side and he needs to make sure there is more teams winning."
However, Wolff claims that in 2018, the fight will "start over again", and has advised his team to stay humble: "I think we have a good organisation in place and somehow the wheel rolls now, but having said that you must never underestimate any of the competition.
"It can go super quick and suddenly you are on the back foot and the car is not as good as the others and we have seen that with Ferrari how quickly they can turn it around [the other way] from a so-so season to a world championship challenger in 2017.
"So I think it's important to stay humble, forget about your own achievements. We are taking all the stickers off the doors here saying we have won the championship because in 2018 it all starts from zero again."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replyboudy
Posts: 1,168
can't wait for the first test...
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Mercedes 2 seconds faster than everyone else confirmed
boudy
Posts: 1,168
We will see. Most likely you are correct, but one can hope for better competition for the championship.
The speed that HAM was running with an new PU was amazing. When he needed to overtake there was so much speed differential that you might be right. However there will be convergence between the different PU's. Hopefully different teams will be able to win races next year without the need for issues with the Mercs/Ferrari's in order to win.
mbmwe36
Posts: 533
The Mercedes organisation is a machine. They seemingly have 10 contingency plans for everything. And even if they're caught off guard the still manages to adapt so fast it's not even funny.
I'm not so sure Ferrari will be able to beat them for the foreseeable future.
Harryw
Posts: 107
Competition not competeion ;-)