{"id":829704,"date":"2025-02-25T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T18:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/wolff-not-expecting-mercedes-success-until-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T12:12:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T18:12:50","slug":"wolff-not-expecting-mercedes-success-until-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/wolff-not-expecting-mercedes-success-until-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolff not expecting Mercedes success until 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/motorsport.nextgen-auto.com\/IMG\/logo\/mercedes_4_-3.jpg?1739265657\" width=\"680\" height=\"453\" alt=\"Wolff not expecting Mercedes success (\u2026)\"><\/p>\n<p>Toto Wolff has played down expectations about Mercedes\u2019 2025 Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n<p>After achieving near-unprecedented title success with Lewis Hamilton until 2021, the team and the seven-time world champion slumped in the new \u2019ground effect era\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton, 40, has fled to Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don\u2019t deny the problems we have been having,&#8221; team boss and co-owner Wolff told La Repubblica newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But looking closely at the data, you can see that we weren\u2019t the only ones in 2024 to have fluctuating performances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for how Hamilton will fare in red, Wolff answered: &#8220;When he has a competitive car, Lewis is always the best.  We weren\u2019t able to guarantee it to him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019re talking about a driver who can give a lot to Formula 1 and the team that hosts him, I have no doubts about that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wolff has replaced Hamilton with his teenage protege Kimi Antonelli, as the Austrian explained that he was determined not to &#8220;repeat the mistake&#8221; he made by letting the-then similarly teenaged Max Verstappen get snapped up by Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>The team boss says he will keep the young Italian &#8220;under my umbrella&#8221; to keep the pressure off as he adapts in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Both Kimi and the team are aware that they should not expect anything before 2026,&#8221; Wolff said.  &#8220;On that side of the box, Valtteri Bottas has also returned to take a look at Kimi, keep an eye on him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If something happens before 2026, it will be a gift,&#8221; he added.  &#8220;I would like to see an Italian driver win again &#8211; it\u2019s been a long time since that happened and would be a great story to write.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> GMM<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/motorsport.nextgen-auto.com\/en\/formula-1\/wolff-not-expecting-mercedes-success-until-2026,197078.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toto Wolff has played down expectations about Mercedes\u2019 2025 Formula 1 season. After achieving near-unprecedented title success with Lewis Hamilton until 2021, the team and the seven-time world champion slumped in the new \u2019ground effect era\u2019. Hamilton, 40, has fled to Ferrari. &#8220;I don\u2019t deny the problems we have been having,&#8221; team boss and co-owner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23819,4447],"tags":[14737,21776],"class_list":{"0":"post-829704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-expecting","8":"category-wolff","9":"tag-expecting","10":"tag-wolff"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}