Toto Wolff: Mercedes team principal on Max Verstappen talks, Lewis Hamilton departure & likely Andrea Kimi Antonelli promotion

After two troubled seasons Mercedes have finally found their way back to the winner’s circle. Russell has taken one win – inherited after Verstappen collided with Lando Norris’ McLaren while disputing the lead in Austria – and Hamilton two, in Britain and Belgium.

How have they finally done it?

Wolff says: “We never lost faith that we would eventually understand how we could extract more performance from these very special cars, ground-effect cars.”

This year started, if anything, worse than 2023 ended. Mercedes finally changed their car philosophy but were still uncompetitive. The breakthrough, Wolff says, came in late spring, when they realised they were not operating their car in the correct way.

“We changed that and saw some first moments of performance,” he says. “And then all of the development in the factory was steered in that direction, and this is the results we’re seeing on track today.”

But why did it take so long?

“That’s a good question. It’s the most difficult sport because it is the interaction between man and machine, and the development is pure science,” Wolff says.

“After winning eight world titles, maybe there were items we needed to change in extrapolating and correlating data, and our competition is formidable.

“We knew it was never going to be easy, and it’s clear that no sports team in the world has won every single championship they participated in, and the results weren’t what we thought. But it was still a third and second place in the championship.”

Towards the end of Mercedes’ run of championship success, Wolff was considering stepping back from his front-line role as team principal.

But ultimately he changed his mind, and says he will be around for a good while yet.

“I want to wake up most of the mornings and enjoy what I’m doing and going to the races, and that feeling has come back,” he says.

“It wasn’t there in 2020. Interestingly that was our most dominant year. But I enjoy it now and I see myself in that role for a while.

“Looking long-term and in a few years, hopefully after we’ve had more success, I would like to comment from the sidelines and criticise from the outside, and maybe do 15 races and not 24. But that is still quite a few years away.”