Tough announcements?

Wolff: “Austrians wear their hearts on their sleeves”

Toto Wolff finds himself in an unusual situation.(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The start of the Formula 1 season has not gone according to plan for Mercedes, but team boss Toto Wolff is still combative. We don't know exactly where the fault lies. However, it is not the time for tough announcements. Austrians communicate things very directly anyway, and now it's time for tact, says the 52-year-old.

"We don't understand some of the car's behavior that we would have always understood in the past," explained Wolff after the disappointing race weekend in Australia. Nevertheless, the Mercedes team boss still has confidence in the W15: "There are units on the track where we are absolutely there with the performance, but then it goes there."

Lewis Hamilton in the W15(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

That's why he wants to "punch himself in the nose" on the one hand, but on the other hand there is also an opportunity: "If you do it right, you can herald a turnaround pretty quickly. You just have to keep believing." However, it is certainly a tough phase at the moment, admits the 52-year-old.

The heart on the tongue
For the team boss himself, it is an experience he has never had before. It therefore requires patience and not harsh announcements, says Wolff, who also emphasizes: "We Austrians wear our hearts on our sleeves and see things very directly. So I have to adapt my way of communicating so as not to create even more pressure. Because that would destroy us." 

He could not detect a lack of commitment anyway. It is not because they are not making an effort. In addition, the 52-year-old is always open to ideas that offer a way out of the crisis. Personnel issues are therefore not appropriate: "We have a physical problem and not a philosophical or organizational one."