Wolff: “This season has been the hardest to deal with”

Toto wolff enjoys a fourth victorious year for Mercedes. The star-studded team once again secured the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles after a second half of the season where Lewis Hamilton made a hole in the Championship by taking advantage of the poor performances of the Team Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.

“This season has been the hardest to deal with, recognized Toto Wolff. This is explained by the fact that Ferrari has raised the bar and that Red Bull came to join the game. As a team, we always want to find ourselves in a comfortable position where the title is decided between our two drivers. It's never easy to deal with internal rivalry, but it's much simpler than facing the difficulties we've had to face this year. »

Toto Wolff has observed the rise of Lewis Hamilton. The Briton managed to equal the number of titles ofAlain Prost and Sebastian Vettel after losing his duel against his former teammate Nico Rosberg last year.

“I’ve been working with Lewis for five years and I’ve never seen him perform at this level before., underlines Toto Wolff. His pace in the race was spectacular. He understands the tires and the capabilities of the car which has proven difficult to drive at times. I have never seen such a level of performance before. After a difficult time in Abu Dhabi last year, we spent a long evening in my kitchen and he was able to confide in me all his frustrations and the problems that had emerged in recent years. We both have a sense of gratitude and I believe that is what made the relationship evolve. He returned from the winter break with an immense state of mind. He got stronger as the year went on. The relationship with Valtteri (Bottas) also has an important factor. There is a great spirit in the team. »

Mercedes will now be able to concentrate its efforts on the future Silver Arrow of the 2019 season which will have to correct the faults of the W08.

“We intend to maintain the characteristics of the “diva” while eliminating the points that caused us problems, confirmed the Austrian. Many teams struggled to understand the new cars and tires, why it worked one day and not another. Looking at qualifying and race statistics, the W08 was the fastest car with the fastest driver. But we have oscillations throughout the season and we have had races where we were suffering. We have pretty well identified the cause of this. We now need to optimize the package for next year. »

Discover the analysis of the Mexican GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2138 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version on all platforms and on kiosks.