Guenther Steiner and Toto Wolff have always shared a great bond as fellow team principals in F1. While the former Haas boss is now out of the sport, his respect for the Austrian hasn’t faded away. Steiner currently gives his expert views on the various happenings of F1, and he often talks about what goes on with Mercedes and Wolff.
Recently, on the Red Flags podcast, he was asked what the 52-year-old brings to the table at the Brackley outfit. Steiner said, “He brings a lot of enthusiasm. And I think he is pretty smart.” However, the American-Italian hilariously added, “Do not tell him I said this” because he does not want Wolff’s “head to blow up” and swell with pride.
Nevertheless, Steiner lauded Wolff’s hardworking nature despite owning one-third of the stakes in the Mercedes F1 team. He joked that the Austrian can easily hire someone as a proxy to work for him, while he enjoys a vacation in Monaco.
However, the way Mercedes has been slipping away in F1 in recent years, Wolff cannot afford to relax. He needs to be involved in the team’s affairs throughout the season, as the Silver Arrows have been trying to get out of this performance slump for the past three seasons now.
Besides the plaudits to Wolff on an individual level, Steiner has called him out as well for his team’s underperformance. It was just a month ago when Steiner took a subtle dig at Wolff by explaining how he and the Mercedes team had been clueless about their W15 challenger.
Steiner believes Wolff and Mercedes never understood the W15
Since 2022, Wolff has often expressed optimism about Mercedes understanding the problems with its car concept, which can lead to their comeback to the front of the field. 2024 also saw a repeat of such doses of positivity from the Mercedes team principal when they seemingly turned a corner with the brand-new W15 concept.
The purple patch of podiums and race wins gave an impression that the Brackley outfit were indeed back in business at the sharp end of the grid. But the second half of the season proved that they again flattered to deceive with their occasional peaks.
Steiner called out on the Red Flags podcast last month, “Toto said a few times this year: ‘We now understand what we need to do’ and stuff like this but they didn’t”.
| Guenther Steiner : “Toto [Wolff] said a few times this year: ‘We now understand what we need to do’ and stuff like this but they didn’t.”
“They won three races this year then they said, ‘Oh, we understood now what we need’ and then the race later, they didn’t. That means… pic.twitter.com/ziZg2K6UwF
— sim (@sim3744) November 16, 2024
The number of false dawns that Mercedes have had since the ground effect era began has posed questions on whether the Silver Arrows can crack this set of regulations or not. Nevertheless, Wolff has his task cut out to make the calculated decision of shifting focus to 2026 if their W16 challenger doesn’t live up to expectations.
