Wolff: No More Updates for 2021 F1 Season
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says his Formula 1 team has put a stop to any further development of the W12 racing car despite being in a heated championship with Red Bull Racing.
“Until the end of the year we don’t come up with aerodynamic updates,” Wolff told Autosprint, an Italian outlet. “We have stopped the development of our current car for months. The last update we finished in the spring was used at the British Grand Prix.”
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Wolff’s statements should be met with skepticism as he has already once claimed, during the double header in Austria, that the W12 would get no further updates only for the team to bring an upgrade package to Silverstone.
That said, it’s possible the upgrades were already in the pipeline at that time, though there’s no telling what the team is really up to. Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner has already hinted it wouldn’t stop developing its own car in its attempt to win the championship, but according to Wolff, his own team’s decisions can’t be impacted by that of others.
“We will never change our strategy due to external factors or those of other teams,” he said. “There is an important battle, but you have to always look at the short- and long-term and try to find the balance.”
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F1 will introduce drastically new aerodynamic regulations for the 2022 season intended to generate closer racing. Teams that divest resources away from future development to focus on the 2021 competition may reap rewards now but fall behind for the next few years.
“The regulations from next year are going to have a very big impact and that regulation is going to count for longer than just a championship,” Wolff explained. “That’s a factor that should not be forgotten. If you’re behind next season, it could take a very long time to close the gap on the competition.”
Still, F1’s team principals are known to engage in bluffing and double-bluffing games. Horner would be happy if Wolff was telling the truth, but it would be a mistake to count on it.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.