Toto Wolff has suggested that he applied "maybe too much" pressure at times during Mercedes' 2022 struggles. The team faced a challenging season due to issues with the W13, meaning that they were unable to match the pace of rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. There were signs of improvement as the campaign progressed and George Russell clinched the Silver Arrows' sole victory of the year at the penultimate race in Brazil, while Lewis Hamilton was left without a win. Despite the difficulties, Wolff feels that he learned a lot throughout it all.
Wolff reflects on 'pressure' on Mercedes
"I absolutely believe that you have to fail and get it wrong to prosper," Wolff told the Beyond The Grid podcast. "There is no sports team in the world that won every single championship they entered. "So, the learnings have been tough, because talking about it is one thing, but then seeing this phenomenon come back weekend [after] weekend, it really tests the organisation and it tests your values. "I think we had our moments, when I look back, [where] there was a certain degree of pressure, maybe too much that I put on the organisation at times. "But it made me learn, learn about the strengths and the weaknesses of the organisation. "At the end, it comes back to the sentence 'the days we lose are the days our competitors will regret', because [that's when] we learn the most and, hopefully, the future will be proof of that."
When the pressure kicked in at the team
When asked at which point he applied the most pressure on the team, Wolff explained that it came at the stage where they were struggling to understand the root cause of their issues, particularly given their changing fortunes at different race weekends. "I think when it sank in that we didn't really understand how to fix some of the car issues," he continued. "It wasn't that it was the porpoising or whether it was a suspension problem. It was basically every stone you turned around had a problem. "Then we went to Barcelona and we had a solid race weekend, and it looked like we were slowly getting on top of things, and then things were getting dire again [after that]. "We eventually finished the first half of the season with a very strong race, and particularly qualifying in Budapest, and then you end up three weeks later in Spa [being] far off the leaders, and the same in Monza. "So that was at times quite difficult, to manage your own expectations. Because after Budapest, [we went] into Spa [thinking], 'Well, are we able to challenge the front runners?', and you find yourself in the midfield. "But again, this is a lesson, how you manage your own expectations, and how to handle if you fail."
Most read
