Being a Formula One great on track does not necessarily guarantee a successful off track F1 career. Having retired as an F1 driver at the end of the 1985 season, triple world champion Niki Lauda’s next foray into the sport was as a Ferrari consultant hired by Luca de Montezemolo in 1991.

Midway through the 2001 season, Lauda was parachuted into the Jaguar team as their principal though as things went from bad to worse he was made redundant along with 70 others the following season.

 

 

Lauda key to Hamilton recruitment

Niki’s next F1 appointment was as non-executive director of the Mercedes AMG F1 team mid way through the 2012 season. Together with Ross Brawn he was credited with luring a disgruntled Lewis Hamilton away from his home team McLaren where the young Brit had raced since entering F1.

Of course this meant the forced retirement of Michael Schumacher as Hamilton joined Nico Rosberg driving the silver arrows for the 2013 season.

The team was immediately on the up and finished 2nd in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull and ahead of Ferrari.

 

 

Wolff admits missing Lauda direction

Under the chairmanship of Nikki Lauda the Mercedes AMG F1 team would become the most dominant force ever seen in Formula One winning a remarkable 8 consecutive constructor titles.

Lauda passed away May 2019 in his sleep due to complications following organ transplants of both lungs and kidneys and as Toto Wolff reveals his presence is missed to this day.

Facing another difficult year, Toto now admits he misses the guidance of his former team co-owner as he searches for answers on how to turn around the fortunes of the Mercedes team.

 

 

Mercedes in a fals position at present

Despite lying joint second with Aston Martin after two races of the 2023 season, Mercedes have benefitted from the failure of others. 

Had Lance stroll matched the performance of his team mate in Bahrain and Saudi, the Silvertown team would have clean air between themselves and the Mercedes squad.

Further, Ferrari struggled with the hard tyre in Jeddah, but in testing and at the Bahrain GP they have proven to have the pace to beat Mercedes.

 

 

Wolff struggles to replace Lauda’s role

Wolff admits to finding it difficult without Lauda to distil into simple terms the direction the in which the team needs to plot its course.

”Niki’s missed all those years because Niki always simplified things to really what mattered,” Wolff told assembled media.

”I’m having to think what would he have said, and how would he have positioned and the two of us worked well together in that sense that sometimes oversimplification can lead you straight to the results – but there are [now] lots of nuances.”

“This is a technical sport so maybe my role was to translate it [Niki’s viewpoint] in a way that we actually were able to execute it in the car design.”

 

 

Wolff has backing of shareholders for now

This is a huge admission by Toto Wolff whose team employs around 1900 personnel in pursuit of their former glory.

Yet for now, Toto believes he has the backing of the major shareholders in Mercedes in INEOS.

“The people in charge in Mercedes and in INEOS, they are high performance individuals.”

“Even before business or in sports, we have all been through up and downs and there is so much support from them in order to get us back on track.”

 

 

Long road back for the Silver Arrows

Wolff reveals he couldn’t wish for better support than he is presently receiving from Jim Ratcliffe [INEOS] and Ola Källenius [Mercedes] as he and the team attempt to find they’re way back to th front of the grid.

The problem for Mercedes is they have lost two years of development to Red Bull and with just two more seasons after 2023 before the regulations change again, its tough to see the Silver Arrows challenging for titles before 2026.

The team have suffered around a 25% turnover of staff in the past 2 years and whether Hamilton will remain is for now an unanswered question.

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