Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is realistic regarding the team’s upgrade package planned for the 2022 United States Grand Prix in Austin, admitting it won’t change their fortunes.
With the Asian double-header over, Mercedes head into the final four races of the season, and plan to kick those off with a final attempt at sorting out their troublesome W13 with a final upgrade package.
Heading into the US Formula 1 weekend in Austin, Toto Wolff reflected on the disappointing races in Japan and Singapore.
“The double-header in Singapore and Japan was a frustrating one for the team, as we didn’t put ourselves in the clean air we needed to maximise the race pace of the car,” he said.
Mercedes using final races as a learning curve for 2023
“We want to end this season strongly and the results of the last two races only make us more determined to do so,” he added. “We need to use the limited track time available to make strides forward for this season and generate as much learning as we can in the development race for 2023 – those two aims are one and the same.”
“Our final update package of the year will be brought to Austin,” Wolff pointed out. “It won’t drastically change our fortunes but we’re hopeful it will bring us a step forward and closer to the front runners.”
“Austin is a great city that we all love visiting. The Circuit of the Americas is a challenging track that often produces great racing, so we’re excited to be back this year and hopefully put on a great show for the fans,” he concluded.
Since 2012, when the Circuit of the Americas joined the F1 calendar, Mercedes has won five races out of the nine held their, four with Lewis Hamilton (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) and one win for Valtteri Bottas in 2019.
The race last year was won by Max Verstappen after a great battle with Lewis Hamilton that went down till the final lap of the race.
Excited for more iconic COTA shots like this ?? pic.twitter.com/At5EBM8cw2
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) October 18, 2022