Mercedes struggles reinforce team ethos - Wolff

Ian Parkes
Tuesday 20 December 2022 05:30

Additional reporting by Ewan Gale

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the team's struggles across the year have reaffirmed the working culture at its Brackley base.

The Silver Arrows had won all eight constructors' championships since F1 introduced turbo-hybrid engines in 2014, but as Red Bull hit the front this term, a number of issues saw Mercedes slump down the order.

The early part of the season saw porpoising and then mechanical bouncing halt Mercedes' progress, though developments through the season helped push George Russell to his maiden grand prix victory in Brazil.

Asked if the hardships had reinforced the Mercedes way of working, Wolff told GPFans: "Yeah, a lot.

"The theory we knew, and we talked about it a lot, is that we must keep our calm.

READ MORE...Wolff reveals 'brain protection' in Mercedes defeats

"We must let the tools and the people work on solutions. We need to trust our systems, and we need to continue to empower and believe in the organisation, and we've done that all along.

"Were there moments where maybe I would have wished to exercise less pressure? Yeah, maybe, but I have a good team around me."

Mercedes famously operates a 'no blame' culture within its team, with an ethos of any error being a lesson learned rather than a mistake.

"We keep each other in check in order to keep the right mindset and attitude within the team, and we support each other," explained Wolff.

"All of us very much buy into our values and, therefore, we kept growing, we kept learning, we kept going.

"Hopefully, one day, all of that is going to bring us the reward of more victories and championships.

"But living it, experiencing it on the job, under pressure is very different than just talking about it in theory."