---
title: "Performance swings leaving Mercedes in ‘difficult’ situation over 2023 car concept"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2022/08/31/performance-swings-leaving-mercedes-in-difficult-situation-over-2023-car/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Hamilton Lyndon-Griffiths"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2022-08-31T14:54:18Z"
modified: "2022-08-31T14:54:28Z"
---

# Performance swings leaving Mercedes in ‘difficult’ situation over 2023 car concept

Mercedes’ performance swings has left it in a “very difficult” position as to whether it needs a heavily revised Formula 1 car concept for 2023, says team boss Toto Wolff.

While Mercedes has managed to tame the proposing phenomenon it faced in the first half of the season, it is still trying to get to grips with the W13.

This has put the German manufacturer in a situation where it is not sure what direction it should take with next year’s car, as it aims to bounce back from its 2022 struggles.

Wolff acknowledged Mercedes was running out of time to commit to a concept, with no guarantee a new direction would put the team in a more competitive position next year.

“It’s a very difficult situation because we obviously have a certain concept of a car,” Wolff explained, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “It’s not like we can experiment a lot this year and just simply dial stuff out and test.

“So whatever we decide for next year needs to be carefully evaluated because clearly our data don’t give us the results, and don’t correlate with the reality. We have massive swings in performance that we can’t really get on top of.

“In this very moment, to take a decision for next year, whatever it may be, like changing the concept dramatically, how can you be sure that that’s the better direction to go because clearly we’ll be starting a little bit way back?”

Mercedes has stuck with its ‘zero pod’ design since its first outing in pre-season testing, but where it loses out to Red Bull and Ferrari relates to downforce.

This is where Mercedes’ deficit mainly lies and is leaving it pondering over a similar concept on its 2023 challenger or a complete rethink.

Wolff said Mercedes was in the process of evaluating what areas in the current concept were worth keeping or binning for next year.

“It’s quite difficult to say what is the concept,” he said. “Is it the chassis in its current shape? What is that? Is it weight distribution? Is it where you can put the mechanical and aero balance? Is it the bodywork concept?

“All these different pillars of the car are evaluated and it could mean that some of that goes and some of that stays? And that’s what we’re looking at the moment.”

Mercedes is set to miss out on both championships for the first time in the V6 hybrid era as sits third in the constructors’ standings 159 points behind leaders Red Bull with eight races remaining.