Toto Wolff’s Mercedes approach question amid ‘head blows up’ quip

Lewis Hamilton may have joined Mercedes because of Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn, but it was what “pretty smart guy” Toto Wolff brought to the team that made the partnership a success.

That’s the opinion of former F1 team principal Guenther Steiner.

‘Pretty smart’ Toto Wolff’s Mercedes contribution

December 31st marked the end of one of Formula 1’s most successful partnerships as Hamilton bid farewell to Mercedes after 12 years with the team, and 11 years with Wolff as his team principal.

Hamilton walked away from Mercedes to join Ferrari, doing so with his results for the Silver Arrows sitting on six World titles and 84 Grands Prix.

However, when Hamilton first joined Mercedes in 2013 there were a lot of questions and doubts about his move as he left the race-winning McLaren team to join Mercedes, who had only been on the grid for three years after purchasing the championship-winning Brawn GP team.

Hamilton claimed a solitary victory in 2013, P1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, before Formula 1’s switch to V6 turbocharged power units sparked Mercedes’ seven-year championship double. The Briton won six World titles from 2014 to 2020, his run only interrupted in 2016 when his team-mate Nico Rosberg was victorious.

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For Steiner in retrospect, it was a case of “right time, right place” for Hamilton who was persauded to join the Mercedes project by Lauda and then-Mercedes team boss Brawn.

“I think at the time, understood that he wanted to get into a real works team,” he told the Red Flags podcast.

“And everything at the time was there, like McLaren is a customer team, they don’t have their own engine by Mercedes, and it was a time obviously he took the right pick.

“He had a good feeling to move there. I think he… as I sometimes say, or a lot of times say, right time, right place. But you make your own decision.

“There’s a lot of drivers which make the move to another team at the wrong time. And I think he just got everything right. He said he saw something and was convinced about something.

“But Niki [Lauda] and Ross Brawn told him what’s going to happen with the team because at the time, Toto was not this Toto that he is now. Toto was the new boy on the block and I think his credibility came afterwards, you know.

“But at the time, the credibility for Lewis was Niki and Ross Brawn in my opinion. And it was a good move for him.”

But as the years progressed, Brawn leaving the team at the end of the 2013 season and Wolff taking up the reins as team principal, it was Wolff who Steiner says deserves credit for the team’s success.

“I think what Toto brought is he comes from the financial world. He knows how to run the business, and he brings a lot of enthusiasm. And I think he’s pretty smart, you know, he’s pretty smart guy,” he said.

“Again, do not tell him that I said that, otherwise, his head blows up.

“So Toto, this is what he brought and this is what he likes to do. I sometimes wonder why he’s doing it.

“I mean he owns a third of the team he wouldn’t need to go to each race, he just could take on somebody, and he being the chairman sitting in his palace in Monte Carlo, and going to the races he likes to go to. But he still works very hard at the at the job, which, again, it’s to be respected.”

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