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Former Mercedes head of strategy James Vowles mentioned that the 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg learned a lot from Michael Schumacher during their time as teammates with the German team.
The now Williams F1 team boss was with the former world champions since the beginning and saw Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher race together for three seasons from 2010 to 2012.
While appearing on the High-Performance podcast, the former Mercedes man claimed the seven-time world champion's contagious energy pushed his then-teammate Nico Rosberg to work even harder which ultimately led to him becoming a world champion himself. He said:
“He taught Nico how to work real hard. He would bring everyone on the journey and lead everyone on the journey. He would squeeze himself every millisecond he had. He would work as late as he needed to, every hour he needed to, that was how he operated.
“Nico learned a tremendous amount from him [Michael Schumacher]. It formed the Nico that then became a world champion ultimately which is squeeze everything out of you can at the cost of everything else.”
Mercedes team boss speaks about the deficiencies in the last two years
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff feels that aside from the performances on the track, oscillation and consistency regarding pit stops have caused them to win a race or two in the last two seasons.
Speaking with Motorsport.com, the Austrian said:
“We have fallen short of key components and performance. It's not only the car's behavior but it's also, you look at the pitstops, they've been very oscillating. But it's nothing to do with the mechanics. They do a brilliant job. Our DRS is not working as it should. We have put wide sidepods on a car that was never designed to have wide sidepods.
"We could have covered for Verstappen in Austin, and we would have been cruising into the sunset. These things happen. When shit hits the fan, shit flies at you. You just got to believe in our organization. The days that we lose are the days we learn the most - and you dig deep."
It is genuinely refreshing to see a team boss admitting that there have been bigger problems apart from the concept of the car failing them on the track. Mercedes and Wolff will want to tackle these issues heading into the next season and go back to the machine-like efficiency that they experienced from 2014 to 2021.
