Toto Wolff has warned that his Mercedes team might still be some way off the pace of their Red Bull rivals at the start of the upcoming 2023 season.
The Silver Arrows were not able to compete for the titles last year as their W13 was not competitive enough. That left Lewis Hamilton and George Russell scrapping for every point and podium place they could get as the team tried to improve the car.
The Brits will hope to be back in contention for race wins and the championship again this year, but it all depends on how the W14 turns out. On that subject, team principal Wolff refuses to get his hopes up too much.
"I think we have understood how we fell back, where the shortcomings are, and where we have gaps in understanding," he said. "We're working hard on putting a car on the ground that has addressed all of that.
"But we will only see when starting testing whether we have unlocked the potential that we believe has always been in the car. "We have no doubt, when you're starting behind by half a second, that it's going to be difficult to catch up to such great organisations like Red Bull, or Ferrari.
"Now, having said that, we are super determined in doing just that. But we need to set our expectations at a realistic level. If we perform in the way we hope, then we'd like to be part of the racing at the very front. But we don't take that for granted – it could well be that the gaps are like they were at the end of last season.
"I think there is so much potential still that within our car, within the concept, the way we drive the car, etcetera, that maybe our development slope can be steeper in the months to come."
Wolff's admission that his team may not be best placed to be the closest challenger to champions Red Bull will be interesting for Helmut Marko to hear. The Austrian recently made it clear he expects Mercedes to be the biggest threat to their title defence.
"They are the more stable team. And they have Hamilton," said Marko. "Even if they may have gone downhill this year, they are still a very special team. In the meantime, [Hamilton's] lap times have repeatedly shown that he is a top driver. [Mercedes] is just the much stronger package than Ferrari."
