Toto Wolff expects Formula 1 to face another small ‘restart’ in Miami after the unexpected spring break. The Mercedes team principal aligns himself with the earlier statements of Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, who predicted that every team will take a step forward ahead of the next Grand Prix. ‘At Mercedes, we look like heroes now, but it could just be that we won’t be in three Grands Prix,’ Wolff warns.
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Ferrari secured important World Championship points for the constructors’ battle with Charles Leclerc’s third place at Suzuka, but saw McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finish ahead of the Monegasque. “Overall, we are not far off and we know that from Miami it could be a completely different championship,” concluded team principal Frédéric Vasseur after the Japanese GP, speaking to Sky Italy.
The Ferrari team principal later nuanced his statements. “Everyone will bring updates to Miami and have time to work on the software (during the spring break, ed.). That’s why I said a new championship is starting, as it were,” Vasseur explained. “We are not the only ones who will continue to develop between Japan and Miami, so we have to take that into account. It is true that we now have a month, and that is not common in Formula 1. All teams on the grid are working very hard on improvements and everyone will take a step – we will see how the hierarchy stands then. I wanted to clarify that.”
‘Miami will be a new start’
Despite Vasseur’s nuance, Toto Wolff – also a good friend of the Ferrari team principal – agrees with him. “Miami will be a new start,” the Mercedes team principal also predicts to the media. “How will the upgrades that the teams bring work? How have we optimized all the other systems? It will be exciting. Teams and drivers are starting to learn how to optimize these systems to their advantage and we saw a first sign of that in Japan. During the first two races we were still dominant, but at Suzuka that was not the case. We have always warned about that.”
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The Austrian emphasizes that Mercedes remains ‘down-to-earth’ about the title chances during the rest of the season. “We’ve only had three races. We look like heroes now, but it could just be that we won’t be in three Grands Prix,” Wolff continues. Nevertheless, it is nice for the team principal to see that after years of struggling, the Silver Arrows have built a car that is competitive again: “It’s nice to see that it’s finally taking shape.”
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