Wolff: 'I learned this from Prost and Senna'.
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The culture that Toto Wolff tries to pursue at Mercedes emphasises transparency and the equality between two drivers, he believes. For this, Wolff tries to learn from fierce rivalries in the history of Formula 1, including the infamous battle between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
To Autosport.com Wolff outlines a conversation that took place between him and Prost: "At the beginning of my stint with Mercedes, I remember a discussion with Alain Prost. I said to him, 'what went wrong between you and Senna?' He said that sometimes, we didn't know whether we had the support of the team or not. There was always politics involved.”
Wolff then explains how he takes this lesson into account in his own team: "We don't play politics. We play politics outside, but we don't play any politics inside. I would never permit it.” “Transparency, being honest with each other, blaming the problem and not the person, and empowering are the values that are of utmost importance to us.”
Realised?
Not everyone will be convinced of Wolff's philosophy, and the extent to which this is now being realised within his team. The last time two Mercedes cars drove each other off the track, however, was in 2016, amidst the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.