Wolff targets 'less vicious' Mercedes car for 2018

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that the team needs to have a calmer car for its 2018 campaign, one that comes without the 'diva' qualities of the W08.

Wolff wants the Mercedes technical department to lose those characteristics that proved so hard to tame in the first half of this season.

"Our car is still a diva," Wolff said as late as October. It meant the team could dominate one week, then struggle to stay in touch with Ferrari and Red Bull the next.

Ferrari won the first race of 2017 in Australia. The battle then swung back and forth over the opening races. However, a disappointing outing in Monaco put the Silver Arrows on the backfoot.

It wasn't until after the summer break that the team finally appeared to have a full grip of their car's capabilities. It came back all guns blazing to finally overturn Sebastian Vettel's lead over Lewis Hamilton.

Wolff wants to avoid that happening again next season. With competition expected to be tight from the get-go, consistency could prove to be the key to winning titles in 2018.

"We’d like to keep the diva but get rid of her vicious character," he said. "At the end of the day it was the quickest car, but it was a diva."

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The season finished with the W08 at its best. It dominated in Abu Dhabi, delivering a Mercedes rout over the rest of the field. But Wolff knows he can't take that as a sign for next year.

“You have to be careful in interpreting the pace,” Wolff said. "I just don’t feel like we should be patting ourselves on the shoulder on how great we were in the last race.

"I’m not sure we’ve seen everything on the cars that will be on the cars next year," he added. "I’d rather stay sceptical, leaving no stone unturned and optimising the deficits of the car."

Wolff told the Formula 1 website that he expected the same top three teams to be fighting for the title next year.

"Winning becomes more difficult with every single year," Wolf said. "I guess we will see a fight between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

"Maybe McLaren-Renault will join us in the title fight," he added. "That is an exciting outlook for the fans.

"But, of course, we want to make the right calls over the winter," he added. "Minimise your mistakes, and then go racing.

""If you win you know that you have done a good job!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.