Fernando Alonso overtook both Mercedes on his way to podium and Toto Wolff says Mercedes should take inspiration from Aston Martin; Wolff also talks Lewis Hamilton's future and says team will not throw in "white towel"
Monday 6 March 2023 10:00, UK
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says his underperforming team will take "inspiration" from Aston Martin's incredible Formula 1 turnaround, but admits it is "too early" to discuss Lewis Hamilton's future.
Mercedes ensured one of Wolff's "worst days in racing" in the season-opening Bahrain GP as Hamilton and George Russell - who finished fifth and seventh - were overtaken by Fernando Alonso in the rapid Aston Martin.
Wolff, while delving into Mercedes' troubles and musings over a new development approach, admitted Aston Martin's charge from F1's seventh-fastest team to Red Bull's main challengers was something to take note of.
"When you look at where we were at the end of the season, it seemed like we caught up a lot," said Wolff on Sunday night. But I think it was just a matter of which circuits suited us and which did not.
"I think we've almost doubled if not tripled the gap to Red Bull and this is what we need to look at, everything in between - the Ferrari - that's just a sideshow.
"And having said that, what Aston Martin was able to achieve is a good inspiration because they came back from two seconds off the pace to being the second quickest team probably on the road.
"And with us, everything's bad."
Wolff, whose comments follow those on Saturday night when he said Mercedes would have to change concepts to be competitive, added: "We've lost a year in development in order to have a steeper development curve and you just need to take these decisions.
"As I said before, Aston Martin took that decision, and they came back strong.
"So if we start from our base, maybe we can come back strong and chase the Red Bulls. That's the ambition."
Wolff also discussed Hamilton's future in his briefing, which has been questioned given the seven-time world champion, 38, is in a contract year and doesn't appear to be getting a competitive car any time soon.
Hamilton, though, gave his team an inspirational message on team radio after the race, saying: "Great work, I know we're not where we want to be but let's keep pushing. Serious work to do to close the gap but I believe in you all."
Wolff stated afterwards: "The Lewis situation, you heard him on the radio. I think he's an integral part of the team, picking the team up and we're all sticking together and I don't think that's going to change just because we had a start another start that was really bad.
"We won eight constructor championships and we won six driver championships with him. That relationship holds.
"I think it would be much too easy to lose a driver and then just throw in the white towel. We're not doing that. On the contrary, we just need to really dig deep and deeper than we've ever done, and provide both drivers a car that they're actually able to fight with. You almost feel for them."
Asked if Mercedes were considering looking at other drivers in case Hamilton did not stay in 2024, Wolff said it was "far too early".
"I think it's not the point to talk about the driver situation in 2024," Wolff added. "That is far too early.
"We need all to all push in the same directions, the drivers, the engineers, all of us management. Rather than like what I said, throwing in the towel, we're not doing that.
"We never have done that and we will not be doing that."
