“…No choice left on winning this season": Toto Wolff

LONDON: Lewis Hamilton finished third in Sunday's British GP but was unable to overtake McLaren's Lando Norris for second position as Max Verstappen claimed another victory to extend his championship lead.

In a recent interview, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff talked about the need to win in the season.

Mercedes are second in the Constructors' Championship but a mammoth 208 points behind Red Bull, while Hamilton is fourth in the drivers' standings, 134 points off Verstappen.

"I think pretty soon, we have no choice left on winning this season. P2 or P3 fundamentally doesn't impact me and the team. It's about coming back and being able to win a world championship," Toto Wolff said, according to Sky Sports.

"That's not going to happen this year so we need to set our eyes to next year and then see at all the races to come, to learn, develop and make sure that we can carry that forward into next year. Having said that, the regulations are the same so you're not learning anything by continuing this car. It's a balance that we have to strike right," he said.

Wolff had thought the British GP would deliver one of Mercedes' strongest showings of the year but Hamilton and George Russell qualified seventh and sixth respectively. While Hamilton finished on the podium, he received a huge helping hand by being able to make his only pit stop under the Safety Car and stay ahead of those who had already stopped.

"I thought that Silverstone based on our historic performances was the best shot of a first win in 2023, but it wasn't. So maybe there's another track where we have the best shot because the characteristics of the car have changed. I always believe that we can beat Max. We have a good group of people, the best drivers and we just have to give them a car that is more predictable and not the Diva 2.0 and much more complicated than the first one," Toto Wolff said.