“We Are Not All Killers”: Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff’s “Showmanship” & Furious Porpoising Accusations Hit Back With a Mix of Sarcasm & Seriousness

With the pre-season testing in Bahrain concluded and the season opener right around the corner, the F1 world is ready to welcome the 2023 season. There is a lot of excitement about the new season as we move away from the past and focus on the present. However, the Netflix series Drive to Survive (DTS) is giving fans nostalgia. More than nostalgia, it is giving the fans a lot of interesting insights and today we will talk about the problem that plagued Mercedes throughout the first half of the season.

The Brackley-based outfit went horribly wrong with their interpretation of the new regulations and manufactured their worst-performing car, the W13. Porpoising was an issue for a lot of teams on the grid, but Mercedes struggled with it the most. The Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, decided to take action after the race in Baku, which brought out the worst of the W13.

As seen in episode two of the latest season, a furious Wolff threatened to take on all team bosses if his drivers get injured due to porpoising. Wolff’s threats got a mixed reaction from all the bosses. Haas boss Guenther Steiner summed it up best.

“Time to go porpoising,” he said right after the meeting. In a one-on-one interview, Steiner said, “I don’t know if there was some element of showmanship going on there or not, but obviously we were all accused that we want to hurt people which we don’t want by the way. We are not all killers here.”

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We were all aware of what happened with the porpoising issue in the foreground. However, DTS definitely gave a glimpse of what went on in the background. However, the show is often not 100% honest.

The Mercedes proposing interaction might be inflated with strategic editing as more entities come forward with concerning revelations

The heated conversation between Toto Wolff and the rest of the team bosses was exciting. Or was it just careful editing? Well, we won’t know for sure until someone comes forward to refute the scene. Esteban Ocon did with a particular scene involving the Frenchman.

The show edited Ocon’s France GP post-race radio comments from a different race to add a bit of flair. Ocon revealed this in an interview with Race Fans.

“I always find strange where, for example, I finished P8 in France, and I said ‘this felt like a win today’. I never said that! And I think I probably said that when we finished fifth in Austria or fourth in Japan, but not when I finished eighth in France,” he revealed.

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They often accused the show of doing similar things for dramatization. Let’s hope following all the backlash from the past, the creators will limit their creativity in the latest season.