Mercedes won’t ‘give up’ on F1 2023 car but “a lot of changes” needed for 2024

Lewis Hamilton achieved Mercedes’ first pole position of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix but was unable to convert the team’s best qualifying of the year into their first victory. 

The seven-time world champion slipped to fourth in Sunday’s race, finishing nearly 40 seconds adrift race-winner Max Verstappen, who helped Red Bull set a new F1 record of 12 successive victories. 

As well as the two Red Bulls, Hamilton was also beaten by Lando Norris in his resurgent McLaren, who have made huge gains of late to emerge as a serious threat to their engine supplier Mercedes. 

Despite recently admitting that Mercedes were poised to switch their full focus onto 2024, Wolff suggested the team are not ready to “give up” on the current campaign just yet. 

“I wouldn’t want to give up any season,” Wolff said after Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring.

“You can see how McLaren has leapfrogged everybody else with an update that they didn’t expect to be that powerful. 

“Whatever it was, they gained a second probably and leapfrogged Aston Martin, Ferrari and moved in as really strong contenders at the beginning of the season are now nowhere.

“We just need to continue working, chipping away at our understanding and unlocking potential in the car as did Aston Martin over the winter or McLaren during the season. We won’t give up.”

Mercedes sit second in the constructors’ championship, 39 points ahead of Aston Martin, but are 229 points behind Red Bull, who have gone unbeaten so far this year. 

Asked if there was enough potential in Mercedes’ current philosophy to catch Red Bull next year, Wolff conceded: “I think we need a lot of changes in 2024.

“The direction our team is developing is really quite interesting and we see opportunities and we are not shying away of leaving no stone unturned, looking at every single concept.”