Wolff: The sails are set for 2024 now

The Austrian was reviewing his team's current F1 campaign in an interview on the Mercedes F1 team's official website, after the sport entered the summer break following the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

Mercedes started the 2023 F1 season on the back foot as they stuck to their slim sidepod concept that proved to be a failure in 2022, and it wasn't until the Monaco Grand Prix that they changed the concept with a major upgrade that featured conventional sidepods, and while the W14 improved it remained inconsistent.

Reflecting on the season start, Wolff said: "Our season really didn't start well in Bahrain, but I think over the last races we've been able to understand the car better, keep on learning and finding improvements.

"The race for P2 is tight between Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and us. It's going to be an intense battle to the end of the season," he said of the fight for second-best behind Red Bull.

"Our objective is always to be fighting for championships, not for second place. But we're racers and we will enjoy the challenge. Our focus is on what we need to be winning races and championships again. One helps the other, so we will be concentrating on how we can improve our understanding of the car, and how we operate as a Team, in the second half of this season," he explained.

Wolff however insists there are positives to be found in the midst of Mercedes' rough patch, he added: "The positives are that we clearly see some development route that functions.

"We understand where we need to add performance. It's a frustrating process because it takes time to fundamentally change a car when you decide on a different development direction. And it takes a huge amount of work from everyone involved to get the car in a better place.

"But there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's also been a positive season so far from a Power Unit perspective, everyone at Mercedes-AMG HPP has worked hard and done a great job giving us a Power Unit that's at the top of the pack," he maintained.

"The sails are set for 2024 now," was the Austrian's response when asked about the team's future plans for the Mercedes W14.

"We still have some updates to come with W14, but I find focus switching to next year good, because there is so much we can optimise on the current car without looking too much into upgrades," he went on."Let's see how we can get it into more of a sweet spot while gaining lots of understanding for next year.

"As the more learnings we can find, the better placed we will be for 2024 and beyond," the Mercedes boss reckoned.

Asked how Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been coping with the difficult W14 at their disposal this season, Wolff said: "Both drivers did a really good job in coping with the ups and downs and the driveability of the car.

"They've managed to work around the challenges we've had with the car very well, very professionally, always looking forward to how we can increase performance and maximising the car with every opportunity.

"We need to give the drivers a more reliable car and platform when it comes to the balance and feeling," he admitted. "It's not about absolute downforce but it's for them to know that the car is going to be stable when they turn into the corner. That isn't the case for now.

"It is a big focus for us, as it will give the drivers more confidence and with that will come more performance," Wolff concluded.

Mercedes are second in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Championship, 256 points behind leaders Red Bull and 51 points ahead of Aston Martin in third.