Toto Wolff learns lessons from Michael Schumacher exiting Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton's future
Schumacher won five F1 titles in a row between 2000 and 200💟4 but Ferrari’s reign ended abruptly when the legendary driver, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt all left - today, the team hasn’t had a drivers’ champion in 15 seaso𒅌ns.
Mercedes reigned similarly with seven drivers’ titles in a row (six for Hamilton) but, after Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen won bac🥂k-to-back championships, Wolff wants to arrest their decline quickly.
"Of course we are talking about it,” Wolff said. “We are analysing: ‘What are the reasons the teams that dominated 𒊎ꩵin the past suddenly lost performance?’
"You can see with Ferrari, they lost the whole top leadership and a key driver. I think that's something you can ꦡtrace back.
"With Red Bull, it wa🍒s a fundamental situation that the power unit regulation changed upside down. So fundamental parameters changed.
"We are looking at t🍌hat and thinking: ‘ꦿWe had better be careful’.
“A season has gone by in a heartbeat and we c🎉an't let it happen to look back at the end of next s🐟eason and the one after, saying: 'That's bitter'."
Wolff wants Mercedes to "avoid the mistakes" and added: 💜"We have the same organisation, the same capability, the same funding. The other pillars are still in pla❀ce.”
Hamilton did not win a single race in 2022 🔥for the first season in his esteemed career. He is locked on seven titles, joint all-time highest with Schumacher, but aged 37 he must overhaul Verstappen to claim an eighth.
He finished sixth in the168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: F1 standings, his worst-ever result.
"We are 100 per cent sure that this w💃as a year that was necessary for us to re-energise and re-motivate the team," Wolff said.
"This has again brou🍸ght us down to the ground, made us appreciate how you win and also understand how difficult it is to recover.
"We've started the 100m sprint 10m beh🐭ind everyo☂ne. So we've just got to run faster. This organisation has all that is needed to run faster.
"There's no fear, but we need to be sharp.
"I'm a glass half-empty man. I'm not sure �🦹�at all we can bounce back to a position where we can fight for championships.
"You need to acknowledge that the competition is strong but we will do everything in our power to set our objecti🍸ves and try to beat them."
James was a spor🃏ts journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
