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Toto Wolff helps keep talking about a job update at Mercedes, but who would update him as a team leader?We’re talking about the suitors.
Recently, there was a discussion on Sky about the greatest team leader in F1 history. Martin Brundle naturally chose Enzo Ferrari, it’s hard to disagree, while Johnny Herbert chose Colin Chapman.
The question was clearly raised through Toto Wolff’s position in the pantheon and since it led Mercedes to seven consecutive world titles unprecedented, the answer will have to be “pretty high”.
But what happens when you retire, as you have said many times, do you plan to do so for the foreseeable future?
The Austrian does not need to overcome his reception as a leader, is a co-owner of the team, and needs a more passive involvement that reduces non-public pressures and allows him to spend more time with his family team.
And then there are rumors that he’s moving to Aston Martin, owned by his friend Lawrence Stroll.
Anyway, whether Wolff stays in the background in Mercedes or leaves altogether, he proved that the search for his imaginable successor was underway.
Clearly, a careful variety procedure will be necessary; After all, the last thing Mercedes needs is for him to like Manchester United after the retirement of legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson!
So, in the search for Pep Guardiola of F1 that David Moyes, we take a look at some of the wannabes who will eventually take over from Toto.
Mercedes technical director James Allison seems to be the ultimate apparent internal choice, especially for his great delight at this point since his arrival on F1 with Benetton in 1991.
The 52-year-old Briton, technical director of Renault/Lotus, Ferrari and Mercedes, would stay with personalities like Ross Brawn if he controlled moving from that specific aspect of the operation to the team’s No. 1 position.
But how much would he want? It would be very different for Allison to be much more at the top of all the media commitments that this entails, it’s very articulate and there would be no concern that it was the public face of Mercedes F1.
The rest of Wolff’s team of lieutenants includes athletic director Ron Meadows, track engineering director Andrew Shovlin and leading strata james Vowles, all of whom played an important role in Mercedes’ success.
It remains to be noted whether any of them can also claim the highest position or settle for a form of promotion after Wolff’s departure.
At the end of 2018, Mercedes retired from the DTM to concentrate on Formula E, in which his first crusade ended well with a double in the last race in Berlin in August 2020 for Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries.
Ian James is the director of the Mercedes Formula E team. The 43-year-old pilot has technical training. He joined the German company in 2011 and one of his achievements is indexed in his as “the reintroduction of KERS, which led to Nico Rosberg’s victory at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, the first win by an official Mercedes-Benz team since 1955”.
James has been away from the F1 aspect since 2015, however, he has that past pleasure and moving from being a Formula E team manager would be a step forward, but not second to none.
Although no longer part of Mercedes’ “family,” Andy Cowell is the talk of wolff’s acquisition.
Cowell was the head of the Mercedes F1 engine until he left The Brixworth headquarters in July, looking for a new challenge, and then Wolff said he “could get the task he wanted. “
However, rumors have connected him to Aston Martin.
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Although Mercedes has been the elegance of the F1 for so long, this does not mean that there is a shortage of skill among others.
They are incredibly unlikely to try to lure Christian Horner from Red Bull and as for Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto, given his date with Wolff, there’s a better chance of hell freezing!(Some say even more chances of Ferrari doing so. win a world championship in the coming years . . . )
But what about Red Bull sports director Jonathan Wheatley?It is a call that has been promoted elsewhere to move to Mercedes after climbing the ranks of Austrian society. Horner looking at his job, Wheatley can be just an option.
Racing Point’s ties to Mercedes are such that Otmar Szafnauer can be just a contender, the Pink Panthers have not had the most productive year in public relations in many respects and that may in the end count against the 56-year-old Romanian. business perspective.
Andreas Seidl has built a clever reputation at McLaren and may have some appeal for the silver arrows, with the 44-year-old German pushing the Woking team to transfer to Renault’s Mercedes 2021 engines.
Alain Prost and Jackie Stewart are examples of world champion pilots who have “poachers turned rangers” . . . are very few, but can this happen in Mercedes?
One thing you can say is that Mercedes insists that team ethics are intrinsic to their success, so in a way it would make sense for them to have one of their own to pull all the strings.
But who? Let’s face it, as long as Lewis Hamilton has something to do with Mercedes, it may not be Nico Rosberg, that’s for sure!
Rosberg took his first steps in team control in the Extreme E racing series while his father Keke founded a DTM team, so it is imaginable that one day Nico would possibly be following in the footsteps of Prost or Stewart, but not as Wolff’s successor.
What about Lewis Hamilton himself? He has the profile and personality to motivate everyone around him and you feel like he should look beyond his driving days.
However, we cannot see it, at least in the short term. On the contrary, it is very likely that the seven-time world champion will continue an outdoor life in the paddock when he retires, running for a team or in the media.
James Allison would obviously be the favorite at this point, with Andreas Seidl as a selection of intriguing options if Mercedes decided to look out.
Jon Wilde
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