Toto Wolff expects 2020 to be Mercedes’ hardest year yet in its efforts to secure a seventh consecutive world championship.
Although the Silver Arrows finished last year over two hundred points clear of its nearest rivals in the constructors championship, it proved to be a tough fight against the resurgent Ferrari and Red Bull efforts.
And Wolff told the official Formula1.com website that the new season will see the big three teams get even closer together, with no room for mistakes if his team is to come out on top again.
“It’s fair to say that there are three teams capable of winning races today and probably winning championships if things are being put together,” said the Mercedes team principal.
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“I don’t think we are going to see the kind of 10 race wins or 12 race wins per team for next year any more,” he continued. “I see this very much as being a much tougher season.
“But obviously we will be trying everything to optimise our weaknesses and continue to perform well.”
Wolff added that he was also wary about the big improvements being shown in the midfield, with McLaren making big strides to finish fourth in the 2019 standings and poised to do even better this year.
“McLaren have massively caught up,” he acknowledged. “Probably the steepest performance slope of all teams. They will be there or thereabouts, in my opinion.”
There will be a big change to F1’s sporting and technical regulations after the end of 2020, which is something that Wolff would prefer not to see. Rather than promoting closer competition, Wolff suggested that the new rules would actually hinder the progress being made toward tighter racing.
“We have always defended the standpoint that by [leaving] the regulations alone, performance convergence would happen,” he stated.
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