Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff claims the battle for supremacy in 2018 “has already begun” as the German manufacturer along with their rivals look to make the most of the final two races of this season.
The shift comes after the Brackley outfit secured the quadruple-double of championships in the space of a week with the 2017 Constructors’ title in Austin and Lewis Hamilton becoming a four-time Formula 1 champion last time out in Mexico.
With development continuing all the time and now the opportunity to try and get ahead with concepts for next season by testing in a real racing environment, that’s why Wolff assures there will be no complacency in the final rounds.
“It might be tempting to think that, with both championships now secure, the pressure is off for the two remaining races of 2017 but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he began in his pre-Brazilian Grand Prix preview.
“Inside the team, we are looking at the next two race weekends as the first two Grands Prix of 2018. We have two races that we are determined to win in order to take that positive momentum into the winter and there will be no backing off just because the championship business is now done.
“In fact, these next two races speak to every principle that makes us what we are,” Toto added. “We aspire to excellence in everything we do, from the first lap of the winter shakedown in Silverstone to the final lap of the post-season test in Abu Dhabi and every time we race, we race to win. That is the mind set we take to Sao Paulo.
“Lewis is operating at the peak of his powers right now, and will be determined to add another victory to last year’s success; Valtteri [Bottas] made a promising step forward in Mexico and will aim to build from this at Interlagos.”
The Austrian is also aware of the sustained and growing threat posed by their rivals and insists efforts will continue to overcome the weaknesses they have uncovered with their car this season.
“As recent rounds have shown, winning Grands Prix is never easy,” he said. Red Bull has taken two victories in the past four races and, although we have claimed the other two, Ferrari remain formidable opponents.
“With the championship now settled, the battle for 2018 has already begun. We plan to keep the characteristics of our ‘diva’ [car] that we like but to get rid of the ones that have caused us difficulties.
“Many of the teams have struggled to understand the new cars and tyres, why they function one day and not the other but if we look at the qualifying statistics and the race statistics, the W08 was the quickest car with the quickest driver.
“We had some oscillations along the way, and we had some races where we struggled,” Wolff acknowledged, “we understand pretty well why that was the case. Now we just have to come up with a way of optimising it for next year. In the process, we will be leaving no stone unturned.”
