Realist Toto Wolff Sticks to His “Stopwatch” Principle After Mercedes in Disarray After Bahrain

It feels like the disappointment of Mercedes‘ fans is about to continue this year, as well, as Toto Wolff has shed light on the issues faced by the team. Though it has become quite evident that the team is now not even the third fastest car on the grid, Toto has something up his sleeve that might help turn around things at Silverstone. However, the trick is nothing more than accepting reality as it has come to him.

Firstly, the team’s boss has indicated that the team is heading back to the drawing board after the observations made around the W14, which carries the DNA of the failed W13—the zeropods. And secondly, most importantly, acknowledges the growth in Aston Martin’s pace, which he believes will only help his squad push the development and innovation paddles harder. Impressively, he manages to figure all of this out with nothing but a stopwatch.

A die-hard lover of the sport has stuck to his principles over the years. A stopwatch is something he loves to mention over and over as his secret weapon, presumably a key personal and team principle, the presence of which also makes him love the sport. During an episode of the Fast and the Curious podcast, Toto answered the question of what he loved about it by saying, “It’s so brutally honest. The stopwatch never lies.”

And it’s only with this use of a stopwatch that the Mercedes boss has judged his team’s ability to compete against Red Bull and Aston Martin while keeping Ferrari out of the discussion. As quoted by GrandPrix, after the race he said, ” It hurts that they are so far ahead; it reminds me of our best years where we put one second on everyone else. That is the benchmark. We need to put one foot in front of the other to come back but nobody in this team will throw in the towel. We need to dig deep, deeper than we ever have done before. And we can do that.”

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So Toto and Mercedes now seem to have focused more on getting the car fixed for next year than for this year.

Toto Wolff’s old love for stopwatches

Timing has the utmost importance in F1. The presence of a precise measurement of up to one-thousandth of a second keeps it fair and transparent for everyone, which contributes to Toto’s love for the sport.

Speaking about it even during the last season, he, as quoted by the GP Blog, said, “It’s a clean slate for everyone. What we love about F1 is that the stopwatch never lies – and we will get our first understanding of the competitive truth on Saturday in qualifying.”

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It only indicates that the boss doesn’t like to deviate from his principles and doesn’t like to smooth things around when they’re tough in reality. They had gotten him and his team success for almost a decade straight, so surely they can do that again.