Phil wrote: ↑17 Jul 2020, 11:23
There is a point to be made, that Toto inherited a lot from his predecessor (Brawn), but even after his departure, the team has enjoyed unprecedented success through one major rule change (2017).
I’s also put the managing of two very competitive drivers (Rosberg/Hamilton) down to his success and not letting the team tear itself apart.
He has said the right things in the press, both drivers (Bottas and Hamilton) are happy and motivated, the team has continued to dominate and even in times of mistakes, the handling of those has been nothing short of exemplary.
I attribute this all to Toto. IMHO he deserves most part of the credit. One could say that Hamilton also deserves some part of the credit for getting those wins in 2017 & 2018, but it took the team around him to make it happen.
I mean, everyone is free to have their opinion and that's fine with me. Here's mine-
A set up like Mercedes which has frankly become one of those factories in China where wins and titles are manufactured at a rate of knots was the brainchild of the great Ross Brawn & Norbert Haug. People often attribute credit to Brawn but not even mention Haug. Right from 2014-17 the Mercedes PU advantage was such that the others had no hope in hell of doing anything and because championships were over before the summer break, they always had head starts for the following year. The 'managing' drivers bit when it comes to Rosberg & Hamilton is outright hilarious as is the Bottas & Hamilton. Let us get one thing absolutely clear- Neither Rosberg, nor Bottas are on the same planet as Hamilton. The bloke is top 3 F1 drivers of
all time. There is more than a reasonable argument about Rosberg taking the fight to Hamilton on Saturday but he couldn't do his shoe laces on a Sunday. It required an absolutely disastrous amount of reliability failures in 2016 for Lewis for Nico to become champion and he was racing no one else that year. Bottas is just a Mercedes sugar coated version of Barrichello. He is nowhere near Nico on Saturday and even worse than him on Sunday who Lewis already had covered. So, the only thing Toto needs to manage here is to ensure the radio between James and Valtteri is working. Pretty cheap cost for a brand like Mercedes.
In this tenure of 2014-20, Mercedes was really under immense pressure once which was for a limited period of time in 2018 and the bloke that really stood up and made it count was Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff had well and truly resorted to tables and microphones like in the WWE in this time. I think, he showed very well what sort of man he is then as did Hamilton.
Just to put it out there- I have ZERO issues with Mercedes winning and in the very least with Hamilton. If anything, I can't believe I am now a fan. Far cry from the thoughts I had of him in his McLaren days. Lewis is everything a sportsman should be and with this BLM my respect has grown even more. Sure, he says some PR drivel every now and then like they all do, but Toto takes the cake in this aspect too. The fall from grace will come, it always has and I personally can't wait to see it. Perfect example of that bloke in life who got there by chance and is now swimming in a pool of $ and fame.
"Sebastian there's very, you're a member of a very select few.. Stewart, Lauda, Piquet, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Fangio.. VETTEL!"