Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's interesting perspective on the resource drain within the team: "Some wanted to go, some we had to go"

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has shared an interesting perspective on the team losing key personnel to rival teams. The team has suffered from an extensive resource drain in the last few years. It all began during their dominant years, with teams like Red Bull and Aston Martin starting to poach key personnel.

Then the whole thing got worse in the coming seasons with some very important members moving on to different roles at rival teams. The more notable names include James Vowles who is now a team principal at Williams. The more recent names that have left or confirmed leaving the squad include star driver Lewis Hamilton, Loic Serra, and Jerome D'Ambrosio (earmarked as Toto Wolff's successor).

In an interview with Sky Sports, the Mercedes boss was questioned about this loss of talent that the team has been going through. Toto Wolff had a somewhat intriguing perspective to this as he said that after 8 years of winning, there was deterioration at some level and that included a human level as well.

The Austrian claimed that there were a few people who wanted to leave, while there were others that the team wanted gone. Now, with all of that behind them, the team is hiring fresh faces and working on getting back to the front. He said,

"We’re in a really good spot, because we had eight consecutive championships and then it started to deteriorate and part of that is also human component. And I think how it’s shaping up now, some wanted to go, some we had to go, and in the same time we’re adding fresh joiners."

He added,

"All of that with the leadership of James [Allison], who does so well, he’s such an inspiration for the team, that I feel we’re in an upward trajectory with the motivation, the energy and the competence.”

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Toto Wolff expands on the issues the Mercedes car is facing

The Mercedes boss expanded on the issues plaguing the car and explained that for now, the biggest problem appears to be the inability of the car to maintain tire temperatures. The car has continued to suffer from either getting the tires too hot or them remaining too cold and hence not hitting the optimum window.

He said,

"You’ve got to add downforce and you got to add performance on to the car. But I think there’s a bit more to uncover. I think we’re getting a little bit too hot or we a little bit too cold on the tyres, and that affects the situation."

He added,

“But I’d rather have the driver saying the car is really good and we’re couple of tenths then the other way around."

Mercedes has had a better run this weekend, with both drivers making it to Q3. Even though Lewis Hamilton ended up getting outqualified by Yuki Tsunoda, the gap to the front appears lesser this weekend.