Toto Wolff admits 2021 will provide a “completely new challenge” for Mercedes to stay on top in Formula 1.
With all-new regulations coming, the Brackley-based team face having to repeat what they did in 2017 and find a way to continue their domination of the hybrid era.
But with this all-new chassis design set to be introduced with greater restrictions on development and likely some standard parts, doing that is likely to be much more difficult.
“2021 is going to be a completely new challenge because the regs are being put upside down,” Wolff said in a video released by Mercedes.
“What [exists] today in terms of aero will not exist anymore in 2021 and I believe it’s an opportunity as a team to do a decent job and prove that we can go through a regulatory change and come out on top like we’ve done in the past.
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“But certainly there is no sense of entitlement, last year’s records don’t buy us any credit for future seasons to come,” the Austrian noted.
“It’s something that is very exciting for us and I personally really look forward to have 2021 coming.”
What also increases the likelihood of Mercedes’ domination ending is how the gap between themselves, Red Bull, Ferrari and even the top midfield teams has shrunk in recent years.
But, reflecting on this season, Wolff explained how the potential to create history keeps his team pushing forward.
“Every single year since 2014, we have tried to set objectives that really motivate us,” he told Crash.net.
“In 2019, the overwhelming target was to win a sixth consecutive double championship, which wasn’t done before in Formula 1 and up to our knowledge wasn’t done before in any other sport on a world championship level
“So this was the target that really kept us going. Also on the difficult days helped us to push through the weekends that didn’t run in the way we’ve expected. It’s something that really kept us energised over the whole year.
“The overwhelming thing this season was obviously Niki [Lauda] passing. That is kind of a shadow over the whole season,” Wolff added.
“But from a performance standpoint, I would put it into three parts. The first one, we really did well in the beginning. We were really competitive.
“Then after the summer, not, and then we kind of recovered and didn’t drop the ball, and our competition did. This made us win the championship.”
