Mercedes won't compete with Red Bull and Ferrari in F1 soon, Toto Wolff warns

Toto Wolff says that the pace advantage Ferrari and Red Bull have over his Mercedes squad at the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season means the team are still a fair way off competing with the frontrunners for race victories.

The Silver Arrows have won eight consecutive constructors’ championships since 2014, dominating F1 with the fastest car in every single season of the hybrid era. But 2022 has brought with it the biggest regulation change in a generation in Formula 1, and so far this season Mercedes are way off the pace of rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.

Their W13 car is suffering from intense bouncing at high speed on long straights, known as ‘porpoising’, and is simply slower through the corners than Ferrari and Red Bull’s machinery.

The team does sit second in the both the constructors’ and drivers’ standings as things stand, with Russell early leader Charles Leclerc’s closest challenger, but that is due to Red Bull’s unreliability which has seen them suffer three retirements in the opening three rounds of the season.

Both drivers have spoken of the need for Mercedes to improve their car as quickly and efficiently as possible throughout the course of the year, and new regulation eras often see teams develop their machinery at great pace. Wolff, though, says that while the team’s technical personnel is working hard to revamp its aerodynamic package, a huge jump forward will not come immediately.

‘For us, the [Australian Grand Prix] went better than we expected, especially after a difficult Friday,’ the Austrian said in his Emilia Romagna Grand Prix pre-race preview for Mercedes. ‘George and Lewis [who finished third and fourth respectively] were both on strong form all weekend and delivered a useful haul of points for