In Formula One, as much as a driver, an engineer, or a car is responsible for the team’s win, the boss is too. But it seems like the Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, is not ready to accept the fact that he is the CEO and all the lackluster of Mercedes should come on his shoulder. These are the thoughts of the former Formula One team owner, Eddie Jordan. In a recent podcast of ‘Formula For Success,’ Eddie ended up criticizing the Mercedes boss very badly.
Toto Wolff is a great boss for Mercedes, the credit for Mercedes’s eight years of dominance goes directly to him. It was Wolff who increased the Brackley team’s winning probability by 57% when he joined the team in the role of a boss back in 2013. But now, at present, when the team is drowning, barely saving the pride, losing, getting defeated, are these not meant to be on Wolff? Yes, says David Coulthard [Former F1 GP Winner] and Eddie Jordan.
These past two years saw an end to Mercedes’s dominance in Formula One. 2022 marked the beginning of Red Bull’s era. In 2023, Red Bull continued with the same target: win the double championship. Team Mercedes, who made a gap of 16 race wins from Red Bull last year with a weak W13 car, was supposed to initiate a strong comeback this year. But instead of the Silver Arrows, fans saw Aston Martin coming with the pace. 2023 is plotting a worse story for Mercedes; the team perhaps has become the fourth team.
Toto Wolff Take The Responsibility For Mercedes’s Lackluster, Instead Of Blaming The Engineers
The mediocre performance of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with the W14 at The Bahrain Grand Prix made them finish at P5 and P7, respectively. Shattering fans’ hopes soon after the season opener Toto Wolff claimed, “it was the worst race day.” He justified the dull performance of Mercedes’s new car by mentioning the “wrong direction” that they chose. As per the reports, Wolff also gave ultimatums to the high-end engineers to work on the car and provide some results.
However, the above justifications of Wolff are not enough to convince Eddie Jordan. The former F1 team owner believes that Toto is the CEO, “he is the boss,” and “the buck stops with him.” Eddie can see everything happening under the watch of Toto Wolff. And at this time, blaming and criticizing others in the design department of Mercedes is “disingenuous. It’s crass,” which is what Toto Wolff is doing.
Eddie Jordan clearly expressed his hate for the fact that Toto Wolff is blaming the engineers for the weak W14. It is, indeed, on the engineers, but defending himself on the platform where he represents team Mercedes is not good. Toto Wolff must be a man who needs to stand up and claim, “My people, my team, we together have failed to get the job successfully done.” According to Jordan, the boss should assure us of a good time ahead that Mercedes is looking forward to. He should come as a boss and say we will rise again, stronger than in 2022.
However, Eddie Jordan keeps that faith in Toto Wolff that he is a strong man. Strong enough to face this hard time and sort the issues out.