Toto Wolff defends Mercedes: “Recent seasons were not a total failure”. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff looks back on the team’s struggles since the 2022 regulations.

The Mercedes team principal has reflected on the difficulties the squad has faced since 2022, insisting that they should not be considered a “failure”.

The golden years

Since the introduction of the new technical regulations in Formula 1 in 2022, Mercedes has no longer been able to seriously fight for the Drivers’ or Constructors’ World Championships, bringing to an end a golden era that had lasted from 2014 to 2021. During that period, the Brackley-based team dominated the sport almost without interruption, with the sole exception of the 2021 season.

That year famously ended with Max Verstappen claiming the title at the final race, after an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that went down in history for its highly controversial finale.

The downfall

Since then, only Red Bull and McLaren have managed to climb to the top step of the world championship, although the Anglo-German outfit has still managed to secure a handful of race victories along the way. Even so, despite this clear drop in competitiveness, the absence of world titles cannot be described as a dramatic collapse for the team.

This point was strongly reiterated by team principal Toto Wolff, who rejected the idea that Mercedes’ recent seasons should be labelled as a failure: “We haven’t managed to win a world championship, but it was second, third, fourth, second place,” Toto Wolff explained to the media ahead of the 2026 season. “It’s not a total failure. If you look at these statistics over a 20-year period, they look solid and respectable, but obviously right now there is nothing to be happy about, because there has always been a team that was far ahead in all of these four years.”

One problem at a time

Toto Wolff then came to the defence of his team by analysing what prevented Mercedes from putting together a complete package capable of consistently fighting at the front: “We started off badly at the beginning by trying to solve one problem at a time,” he continued. “While we were trying to fix those problems, new ones appeared, and we were never able to truly understand them.

“We had false hopes and lots of theories, but never one that gave us an advantage to fight for the world championship. Our competitors simply did a better job. Look at McLaren and how they revolutionised their car three years ago. Then look at Red Bull, which has had its ups and downs.

“What happened from the summer onwards is clearly an understanding, or at least an example, of how you can identify what isn’t working and radically turn a season around. In reality, we were never able to do that over the course of four years.”