Mercedes Facing a Setback says Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff, Mercedes’s team boss, revealed that the team have had a minor “setback” with its engine development before the 2019 Formula one season during an exclusive interview at an event for their team sponsor Hewlett-Packard. Mercedes has been the epitome of success, when it comes to wining the constructors championship, since the year of 2014.

While speaking at the event Toto Wolff spoke about the team having targeted itself higher goals for 2019 based on the paddock intelligence of the progress that their rivals teams were making.

“There is a tremendous development race that is happened as we speak”, said the Mercedes boss. “Finding the down-force, and reducing drag and of course the engine is a very important part, adding more horsepower to the engine”, said Toto Wolff.

“So we are setting ourselves really ambitious targets”, continued Wolff. “We have actually increased the targets six weeks ago because we heard some rumors that others were doing well”, he added. “We’ve had a little bit of a setback on the engine side where we believed the new concept would deliver a little bit more, but these guys are very ambitious like all of us and so I’m optimistic”, he said.

He also spoke about the development on the power unit saying,“We will know when the first qualifying session gets underway in Melbourne, this is the moment where everybody shows their cards”, he added.

Mercedes have dominated and won all the past five constructors championships in a row, since the regulations on the power units were modified way back in 2014. They were widely accepted as the most dominant force on the track for the first two years. However, Ferrari and Red Bull have closed in on the gap in the past two years, especially in the 2018 season, which just drew to a close.