Mercedes Team Principal has insisted the no-blame culture cultivated by the team under his tenure remains strong despite a continued spell off the top of the table. The Silver Arrows had employed the culture to great effect during a stunning eight-year streak of Constructors' title triumphs, ensuring no one person was held accountable for any issues suffered across a race weekend. But success has been hard to come by since the dawn of a new regulatory era last season, with only two pole positions and one race win in that time. The early stages of the current campaign were dominated by continued issues with its radical aerodynamic design concept that was eventually ditched for a more traditional look from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards. That has brought improvement, with the Brackley-based team overtaking Aston Martin for second in the Constructors' standings.
We blame the problem
Asked if continuing to work under a no-blame policy was more difficult given the struggles since the start of last season, Wolff told media including RacingNews365 : "The human reaction is always that when something goes wrong, you want to say 'it's your fault' because that allows us to get pressure off us. "That is something we actively debate but clearly when things are rosy you can live up to those standards, but sometimes it goes terribly wrong - which happened to us last year and also in some instances this year. "You just need to remind yourself constantly about that mindset and those values that we blame the problem and not the person. "Fundamentally, it is all my fault. If we have a bad pit stop, it is not because the mechanic has underperformed, it's because his equipment is not up to the job or the training hasn't been good enough or the wheel nuts are not how they should be. "So in the end, you can always retrace where the problem is and generally, it is up to us to develop the person so the person can perform best in the role. "That's why we blame the problem."
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