Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff Goes Against Lewis Hamilton’s Wishes to Put Cursed W-13 in a “Special Place”

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton may want to grab a time machine to reverse the events of the 2022 season. Such was the frustration of the Mercedes W13 car for the Brackley team. Hamilton endured a winless season for the first time in 16 years. No wonder he criticized the W13 and wished he never drives it again.

Lewis Hamilton expressed how the W13 was a nightmare for him and had several issues. Be it brakes, bouncing, drag, or several other things, he was certainly not happy this season with all these issues. As per Autosport, he revealed how he looks forward to driving the 2022 Mercedes for the final time after the Abu Dhabi finale.

Although his boss Toto Wolff has defended the cursed W13 and pointed out the positive side of the car’s issues. As per motorsport.com., Wolff said, “I think this car will always have a special place in our collection – very far back. But I think that hopefully the next few years will do her justice, because the learning curve with that car was enormous.”

Toto might have reiterated how the issues of their 2022 car will motivate them to avoid such mistakes in the future. Learning from their mistakes is crucial for the Silver Arrows for making progress in the upcoming seasons.

Even though Wolff defends the W13 against Hamilton’s sentiments, the Austrian had also fondly joked about how the W13 may not have the highest place in the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

Read More: Lewis Hamilton Leaves Behind Problematic Mercedes W13 With One Heated Word

Nonetheless, Toto was happy and positive about how their car still dominated in Brazil to win the Sao Paulo GP. So both he along with Lewis know that their car has got pace, it is just about extracting it efficiently for 2023.

Is a sequel to the Mercedes v Red Bull Fight coming in 2023?

The 2010s have been the decade of Red Bull and Mercedes. While these two teams did not fight head-to-head for the championship until 2021, it was still a technical battle as to who built the better car. Red Bull aced it until 2013, before dropping the ball to the Silver Arrows in 2014.

Mercedes were relentless and miles ahead in terms of raw pace until 2020. They had an efficient combination of the turbo-hybrid engine and their aerodynamics. It was 2021 when Red Bull matched them up with a great power unit from Honda.

As the Milton Keynes squad has always been sorted on the aero side, the 2021 season turned into a titanic battle. But now the tables have turned since then. Red Bull is the dominant car like Mercedes was pre-2021. And the Brackley outfit has got some ground to cover.

Mercedes need to focus on getting the car concept free of all the issues for 2023. If they can make the W14 free of the fundamental problems they faced this year, a championship fight may be on the offering.

Yet it is a big mountain to climb, given their deficit to the Red Bull RB18 this year. The gap in one-lap pace was alarming at some tracks, going up to over a second in Belgium.

Watch This Story: Safety Car rules that cost Lewis Hamilton the 2021 championship

The 2023 pre-season testing will be crucial for Mercedes to gauge how much gains they have made over the winter. So until they get to Bahrain in less than 3 months’ time, it might be overtime working at Brackley and Brixworth for the Silver Arrows.

What do you think? Will we see a sequel to the Mercedes v Red Bull 2021 battle?