Villeneuve Discusses Possible Mercedes Revival After Two Failed Seasons

Monday, 11 December 2023 at 09:00

The future of Mercedes is currently unclear as the team tries to catch up with Red Bull before 2024, but Jacques Villeneuve shared a few thoughts.

The Mercedes F1 team won only one Grand Prix in the last two seasons. But other than that, Silver Arrows were not able to match the supreme pace of the dominant Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton recently accepted an award for third place in the Drivers' Championship. During his acceptance speech, he congratulated Red Bull on Max Verstappen but said he truly believes Mercedes can catch the team from Milton Keynes next season.

However, Mercedes was far from matching Red Bull's race even after two seasons since the technical regulations changed.

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has been clear about the fact that second place in the Constructors' Championship is not where Mercedes wants to be. Villeneuve comented on Wolff's situation for PlanetF1:

"I think it was tough two years ago when they lost the championship. Then he lost his marbles a little bit, the whole situation, because the team was not used to not winning."

Mercedes went from dominating Formula One for seven seasons straight to losing the Drivers Championship in 2021 and then falling back and being uncompetitive in 2022 and 2023. Villeneuve continued:

"It was just cold water. Even a lot of the mechanics of the team, they were not used to it and not all of them could actually live with that."

On the other hand, Mercedes made some steps forward this season and plans to change the concept of their car completely going into the next season.

"But he’s recovered really well. The team has been going in the right direction. Progress has been fair this year, although not as impressive as McLaren."

The former F1 World Champion believes Mercedes could catch up with Red Bull under Wolff's leadership. But there are multiple pieces of the puzzle that need to fall into place for the team to have a chance, as he suggested:

"He has the character, the personality and the strength. So there’s no reason why not. Then it depends on who else is in the team, it depends also on how Lewis and George work with the engineers in pushing the team forward and focus, same as Max, or not."