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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted that sometimes he can go overboard in his criticism of the team to the media. The Austrian has not had the best of runs in F1 over the last couple of years. After losing a very intense championship battle against arch-rivals Red Bull and Max Verstappen in 2021, things have gone downhill for Wolff and Mercedes.
Mercedes went in the wrong development direction when it came to the new technical regulations in 2022. As a result, the car produced by the team was just not up to the mark. Mercedes slumped from being a perennial title contender to a team that would finish P3 in the championship.
However, there was one silver lining for Mercedes in 2022 when it won its only race of the season through George Russell in Brazil. That did eventually work as a kryptonite for the team as it meant Mercedes persisted with the same concept for 2023, only to find out that it did not have the performance ceiling that Red Bull did. After the first race of the season, Wolff was public in the criticism of his team.
Looking back, the Mercedes boss concedes that there have been moments where he has probably been too harsh on the team in the media. He was quick to add that he had gone back to the factory on Monday to apologize to the team.
"Criticizing the team in front of the media is part of a balancing act that I haven't always been able to master perfectly. Many employees are motivated when they see an ambitious boss, but Sometimes I cross the line. I have to take chamomile tea before interviews to calm down. If I have been too harsh, on Monday I go back to the factory and apologize. This is also part of good leadership," Wolff told La Gazzetta.
Mercedes boss excited for the 2024 F1 season
In a chat with Sky Sports, the Mercedes boss was quite excited about the 2024 F1 season as he felt that the team had taken quite a few proactive steps to close the gap with Red Bull.
"There's a team that is so successful and we have a big gap to close. At the same time, I believe we've taken some proactive steps to close that gap. Is it going to be good enough? I don't know. But we're going to see it in testing and then in the first race in Bahrain. I'm super excited. I'd like to start going now. It's the stopwatch that's going to tell us what job we've done," Toto Wolff stated.
The last two seasons have not been good for Wolff and it will be interesting to see how he fares in 2024.
