Toto Wolff, executive director of Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team, said he expects the new W06 to be a more reliable car than its predecessor.
During a teleconference in which Auto123.com participated, Wolff was asked if the German team focused on improving engine power or on increasing its overall reliability. “Well, just 20 minutes ago, we blew up an engine in Barcelona!” said Wolff. “We devise reliability into two sectors: mechanical and sporting reliability. The latter concerns sporting problems such as strategy errors, pit stop mistakes and stuff like that. Out sporting reliability was above 90% last year, which is quite good. “However, our mechanical reliability was down at 82 or 84%, which was far from being satisfactory. We implemented a new quality management department six or seven months ago. It works well. I believe our cars will be more reliable this season.”
Wolff confirmed that his F1 team was able to dispatch special projects to various departments and companies of the huge Daimler group. “It’s a great advantage to have this huge mother ship behind us. We were able to get them onboard for technical solutions,” Wolff said. “We’ve worked with them since the past few years. For example, we got their help on the cooling side, on the internal combustion engine (ICE) and just a few days ago, we needed their help with piston coatings. Working with them allows quick decision-making.” Mercedes, Lotus and Williams cars – all powered by Mercedes-Benz power units – ran competitive times during the winter tests in Barcelona. Does Toto Wolff think his team will face stiffer competition in 2015? “I think so. We saw that Ferrari has improved its power unit,” he replies. “We’ve seen top speeds that are much closer to our cars. We’ve seen energy deployment similar to ours. Even if some teams ran their cars with low levels of fuel (in order) to shine, they have taken a step forward. I still don’t know who will be our main rivals, but competition will be closer this year”, Wolff declared.
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