The Mercedes AMG team were once the place to be for any aspiring F1 personnel including all the drivers on the grid. Bought from Ross Brawn following his remarkable year in 2009 where the Brawn GP outfit beat the established competition and handed Jenson Button his drivers’ world title, the Brackley based team won eight consecutive constructor championships from 2014 and handed Lewis Hamilton six of his seven F1 titles.
Its success was born out of the huge investment made by Stuttgart in designing and building the best of the new V6 Turbo hybrid power units which dominated for several years before the competition finally caught up and further development of the powertrains was frozen by the FIA in 2022.
Vital personnel leaving Brackley
With Lewis Hamilton crushing the competition year in and out recruitment was simple for the Brackley squad who had the pick of the brightest and best whether it be for engine specialists, aerodynamicists or or whatever the function in the 1000 plus personnel establishment.
Yet since the drama of the 2021 season which saw Hamilton lose the record eight drovers’ title on the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes have struggled to compete with Red Bull. Under the new financial regulations the team more than others has been forced to slim down to meet the budget cap and this together with the loss of on track dominance has had an effect on some of the team’s brightest and best.
It could be argued Lewis Hamilton has been on the inside looking out and has seen the talent draining away from the team which influenced his decision to leave for Ferrari next season.
The most high profile figure to have departed Mercedes AMG F1 was James Vowels who led to take up the team principal role at Williams. Although equally vital and other senior staff have been searching for pastures new over the past three seasons.
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Wolff intended to quit
Toto Wolff himself was rumoured to be considering an exit back in 2021, but with Lewis Hamilton out of contract he decided to remind with the team as a condition that Hamilton did the same. Now with the glory days behind them and his star driver leaving for Italy, it is looking ever more likely Wolff missed the top of the market to make his exit and cash in his shares in the organisation as well.
Vowels was an influential figure to lose having started his F1 career in Brackley when the team was called British American Racing. He remained there through the transition to Honda, then Brawn GP and finally Mercedes AMG F1. James was thought to be in line to the Toto Wolff throne when the Austrian finally said goodbye to Formula One, but following Toto’s new contract it became clear his route to becoming a team principal was blocked for the foreseeable future.
The departure of James Vowels meant Mercedes reshuffled their reporting lines and an ex-F1 driver named Jerome D’Ambrosio was recruited from Formula E into a role described as “driver development” in effect looking after the Mercedes young drivers in various motorsport’s categories. Yet D’Ambrosio was clearly brought in with other opportunities in mind and was named as the stand in for Toto Wolff last year while the team boss underwent knee surgery seeing him miss the Japanese and Qatar Grand Prix.
Looking ahead to the record 2024 season containing 24 races, Toto Wolff revealed he would be handing over the reigns to D’Ambrosio again this year: “I will start to skip a few races. The whole team needs to look at it,” said the Mercedes team boss.
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“It is not sustainable for anyone to do 24 races. The drivers have to, but we start on Monday in the office and go through until the end of the week.”
Now Wolff’s plans appear to be thrown into disarray as Soy Motor are reporting the former Toro Rosso driver has already been “captured” by team boss Frederic Vasseur ahead of taking on a new role with the Scuderia in 2025. His role allegedly will again focus on the driver academy programme but for Ferrari, which is something of a slap in there face for Mercedes given their high hopes for D’Ambrosio.
Toto has been done over by his friend and counterpart Fred Vasseur who already lured Lewis Hamilton from his long term home with Mercedes to a new life in Maranello. Paddock rumours have suggested a number of engineers and personnel will follow Hamilton to Italy, though as yet this is unconfirmed.
The problem for Mercedes is defined by the very nature of Formula One. It is a competitive sport and the best people want to work on the side of the winning team, which Mercedes is not doing.
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Technical Director switch had no effect
Whilst Wolff puts a brave face on each F1 weekend he knows behind the scenes all is not well. Mercedes parted company with their technical director (TD) Wolff had described as “brilliant” following criticism from Hamilton the technical team were not listening to his demands over the car design.
James Allison once more stepped into the TD breach and whilst he has been credited with a portion of Mercedes eight year run of success, the first car delivered on his second watch is proving to be a disappointment. The once uber dominant F1 team now lies fourth in the championship after two rounds with star driver Lewis Hamilton scraping into the top ten having scored just 8 points this year.
“It’s frustrating for sure to be in three years in a row in almost the same position. It’s definitely tough but we will get our heads down and keep working away, and I know everyone back at the factory is pushing as hard as they can,” said Hamilton who was almost a second a lap slower per the 50 lap race than Verstappen who took the chequered flag first.
Hamilton cut a sad figure in the media pen as though he realises it’s already to late for him to ever win another race for the Mercedes who have powered his entire F1 campaign.
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“We’ve definitely got to make some big changes,” added the seven-time champion.
“We haven’t made big enough changes, perhaps. If you look at the three teams ahead of us, they still have different concept to where we are in some areas.”
Can Mercedes stop the brain drain and was all their success built on billions spent to build the best of the new V6 power units?
For now it seems as though their best hope of a revival is in 2026 when the next big change in powertrain design comes into F1. Yet this time the research and development and build costs are all restricted by the new FIA financial regulations.
Mercedes will have to rely on ingenuity not more money than the rest if they want to return to the top of Formula One, but for now the brain drain continues.
Ingenuity has always triumphed in F1. Equating money with progress is too simplistic an answer, suggesting that paying someone more will get a better outcome. Who you pay is really important.
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