Toto Wolff Needs a “Tough Guy” to Help Team, as Ex-Ferrari Boss Names Frederic Vasseur’s Top Target as the Man for Mercedes

Even world champion F1 drivers look mediocre in midfield cars. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been struggling with the current generation of cars, and Mercedes cannot figure out why. Team Principal Toto Wolff puts up a sad front after every failure but doesn’t deflect accountability. Mercedes’ technical team has tried various permutations and combinations of upgrades but to no avail. At this junction, former Ferrari manager Peter Windsor has urged Wolff to take on Ferrari’s top choice of technical personnel, Adrian Newey.

After his Red Bull exit, Newey is a free agent. Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur is dedicated to pursuing the technical mastermind to boost Ferrari’s championship hopes. Though Mercedes is in a worse state than them, Wolff has no intention of discussing employment with Newey. Peter Windsor has suggested that the Silver Arrows need a “tough guy” like Newey to reduce the complacency in the team.

“I think the problem is that Toto is in some ways too good a manager,” Windsor said on his YT channel. “He’s got too much stability between all the different management structures. He needs a sharper edge. In other words, he needs a Adrian Newey to say ‘No, no. This is the way we are gonna run it. I am going to do it this way.’ Of course, it’s not a surprise people don’t like working for Adrian Newey. He’s a tough guy to work for. That’s how it should be in Formula 1. It should be tough.”

With F1’s most successful designer signed Mercedes could finally snap out of their nightmare. But that would be only one piece of the puzzle. Finding a competent replacement for Lewis Hamilton is another mammoth task.

Toto Wolff pushes Lewis Hamilton’s replacement decision indefinitely

Once the 7-time champion left Toto Wolff & Co. for Ferrari, the spotlight shifted to Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The 17-year-old was speculated to be George Russell’s new teammate and Wolff’s favorite. But the Mercedes boss has shut down all such rumors and indefinitely postponed their 2025 driver announcement.

“As for Kimi, there are so many stories that were created that don’t do him any favor because he needs to concentrate on his F2 campaign,” Wolff said, as quoted by GPblog. “He’s doing lots of testing for us in order to bring him up to speed. This decision of the second driver is weeks, if not months, away.”

Despite several options in the driver market and technical personnel market, Mercedes’ contract progress remains stagnant. Wolff has quite a task on his hands to avoid shedding the tag of a World Champion team.