Toto Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes was unable to respond to McLaren’s increasing pace at the Formula 1 Dutch GP. According to the team principal, the rival got stronger throughout the race, eventually opening a clear advantage.
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Kimi Antonelli tried to hold position after gaining ground at turn 1 on the second restart, but Lando Norris eventually found enough pace to overtake the Italian and pull away. The Brit crossed the finish line with more than ten seconds advantage, reinforcing McLaren’s comeback after a season start dominated by Mercedes.
“It must be acknowledged that they were really fast. I think we had a bit of an advantage over them with the Medium tires at the start,” Wolff said. “But from there, literally the lap time started to slip away from us. They got stronger and stronger. We need to understand why that didn’t happen on our side and try to do better.”
Wolff also linked the difference to the development pace throughout the season. He explained that Mercedes does not have the financial freedom to immediately respond to every update introduced by McLaren and Ferrari. “The available budget was spread throughout the year,” the executive indicated, highlighting that the team prioritizes moments when it believes it can achieve the greatest performance gain and impact on the championship.
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This strategy may come at a short-term cost. According to Wolff, a significant update can represent several tenths of a second, which makes the loss of ground visible when a team falls behind in the development cycle.
Still, the Mercedes boss believes the scenario may change later on. McLaren and Ferrari adopted a more aggressive approach in the early and mid parts of the season, while Mercedes tried to distribute its resources more evenly. The consequence, in Wolff’s view, is that rivals may have less room to evolve in the final stages of the championship.
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