Prowling Wolff: How Mercedes F1 boss envisions even greater success Car News

“It’s the current reality, and I love every part of it, and the team enjoys the challenge. And hard times, no matter how painful, are so precious and teach us so much. We always ask ourselves the question, “Can we keep a cool head, can we stay true to our values ​​in a serious fight?”

“We demonstrate that we do, but there are obviously our own expectations and brutal honesty about the shortcomings. And I think those principles and the idea of ​​empowering and blaming the problem rather than the person has won us seven championships. “

This culture of non-guilt is vital to Mercedes’ success and often misunderstood. With F1 teams being such large entities, it is so easy for them to get into politics, their energy being directed to other departments’ responsibility for failures rather than fixing them. In one of its earlier forms, Brackley’s team suffered.

Instead, it’s about making sure people are happy to raise their hands for their mistakes rather than fearing the worst. Look back over the past few years and you will find plenty of cases of Mercedes admitting mistakes, whether they were simple number entry errors that caused strategic mistakes or, in 2019, underestimating capacity. cooling of the car, and this reflects the internal culture. . It’s not about making scapegoats, it’s about improving. This is one of the reasons why, while Mercedes has faced competitors with similar resources over the years (Ferrari and Red Bull), it has consistently beaten them until now.

Some of Wolff’s rivals would say he’s played political games, with a series of technical guidelines – effectively rule clarifications – aimed at curbing the flexible bodywork, clever tire pressure manipulation, and even engine speeds. pit stop. But it fits a sport where every legitimate advantage must be sought – especially since Wolff has a keen sense of what constitutes regulatory fair play. As it showed during the 2019 controversy over how Ferrari operated its engines, which led the Italian team to cooperate with the FIA ​​to formulate technical guidelines to stop what it was suspected (but never proven to do), he takes the rules very seriously.