Mercedes F1 Boss Spilled the Beans About Facing an “Internal Conflict” in 2020: “Do I Want to Stay…?

Mercedes won the Constructor’s Championship for all 8 years between 2014 and 2021. The man at the helm of things was responsible for the glorious years of the Brackley-based team. But everything wasn’t warm and cozy for the team.

The Mercedes team has been a part of F1 since 1954 however only intermittently. They rejoined the grid in 2010 after their parent company, Daimler AG, purchased a stake in the Brawn team. But they couldn’t make any progress as the results never came.

Then came the big change – Toto Wolff became an Executive Director of the Mercedes F1 team. He acquired a stake in the parent company as well, along with Niki Lauda. Wolff had earlier worked at Williams while Lauda was a legendary F1 driver himself. Their fortunes changed as soon as Wolff began steering the team.

But in 2019, the team and Wolff faced another adverse situation – the death of their mentor, Lauda. Toto, back in 2020, spoke about the passing away of Niki and said “10 months have been very difficult for me. Also, I gave everything for eight years and at one point I felt exhausted.” [translated using Google]

“Also, my contract was about to expire and I could sell my shares. All this gave me an internal conflict. Do I want to stay in Formula 1? Will I still have a contribution here? Or can someone else do it better?

“I spent about a year thinking about it. However, ‘thinking about’ is a bit of a positive statement. I also questioned myself because of the pressure on me. In the end, I chose Mercedes and Formula 1. I found a place for myself here.”

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In Lauda and Wolff’s short stint at Mercedes, they made the team a complete beast. His legacy will be long remembered among the F1 community.

Mercedes are not too hopeful of taking the mantle back from Red Bull

Wolff is not very optimistic about Mercedes’ prospects for 2023. According to the Austrian, their rivals are too far ahead for Mercedes to be able to pull them back in such a short term.

Talking to Channel 4, Wolff explained why he believes Mercedes will not be title challenger for the 2023 season.

“Obviously, we have missed a lot of development time to find out about bouncing and purposing and all these things. So it’s clear that Red Bull in a very favorable position, not only for this year but also for the start of next year.”

“But having said that, if we were to continue our understanding and development of the car, I think we can catch up quickly.”

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Wolff’s words show how far the team has fallen behind Red Bull. While he may be playing his cards too close to his chest with this evaluation, it still is going to take a lot of catching up for the team.