Toto Wolff believes that it’s logical that Mercedes is no longer popular due to its domination in the sport in recent years.
A recent global fan survey revealed that Mercedes is no longer the most popular team as it trails behind McLaren and Red Bull.
As Mercedes has won seven world championships in a row, Wolff understands human nature which means it’s almost impossible for his team to be the most popular.
“Well, obviously, you want to be the team number one everywhere. But I think it’s the normal evolution that we have expected. We have been very fortunate to win seven times in a row, a tremendous streak of success.”
“It’s clear that, in nature, you cheer more for teams that had more difficult times and [are] a little bit of an underdog.”
The Mercedes team boss praised the McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, who are in the top four drivers globally and are a big part of the team’s popularity.
Wolff said, “They’re doing a super job with the drivers also. Daniel has been loved for a long time, and Lando is doing pretty well. They deserve to be right up there. The whole package, in terms of marketing and social media, is just very good.”
“We need to think about what can we do, but you can’t change history and I wouldn’t want to change it.”
A fun racing team
McLaren CEO Zak Brown said that he has tried to bring a culture change at the formerly austere and aloof team since he took the lead five years ago.
All I can really do is speak about how we go about going motor racing. We try and be a fun racing team, an inclusive racing team. Drivers that are very open, communicate with our fans frequently.”
“We’re just doing our thing and it’s nice to see them react so positively to it,” he further added.
Brown himself is a huge fan of the sport and has tried to bring that perspective to his team. He said, “It wasn’t long ago I was sitting in the grandstand watching the Ayrton Sennas and Lewis Hamiltons and trying to understand what would get me excited about the sport.”
“We’re just trying to provide that experience back to the fans and it seems to be working,” he added.
