In his recent remarks, Eddie Jordan pointedly criticized Toto Wolff for exhibiting ‘slight arrogance’ at the start of 2023, highlighting a tense period within the Mercedes F1 team’s leadership dynamics.
Eddie Jordan expresses surprise at Mercedes F1’s low profile as a title contender, challenging the default assumption of Max Verstappen‘s dominance and spotlighting Lewis Hamilton‘s potential for a comeback.
Eddie Jordan is surprised that Mercedes F1 isn’t more frequently mentioned as a world title contender. The former team boss believes that crowning Max Verstappen by default or seeing other teams as his main challengers is premature.
“I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but people aren’t talking about Mercedes like they used to, to be honest,” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast. “They aren’t seen as title contenders.”
“It seems a foregone conclusion that it’s Max again, then there’s talk of Ferrari, talk of McLaren. But I think we might be making a mistake because I believe Lewis still has the ability to become world champion again, that’s what I believe.”
Jordan is also puzzled by Toto Wolff’s public display of irritation with his team, while, according to the Irishman, he was also responsible for what was happening internally at Mercedes: “I just think Toto was a bit arrogant at the start of the year.”
“I’m glad to see he’s calmed down because he’s the CEO of the company, he’s the ultimate responsible person, it’s his responsibility. The words Toto should have said, in my opinion, are ‘we got it wrong.’ Because he’s an integral part of the team.”
“The structure he helped put in place, we know how powerful it was, we know how successful it has been. So, when things go wrong, I think everyone needs to raise their hand and share the responsibility.”
“Team Stimulated by Changes”
Jordan is curious about what went wrong when the design team missed the mark with the W14, and why it took so long to launch an evolution significantly different from the previous version.
“There was such a mess at the beginning of last year with the sidepod issue. They knew it, they took too long to change it, yet they got back on track after that, but you have to wonder what happened to their design team.”
David Coulthard, co-hosting the podcast with Jordan, believes that sometimes changes in team composition are necessary to jumpstart progress: “Inevitably, there are changes over time, and people leave because they are tired or because they are recruited.”
“As we’ve seen with Aston Martin, one of Red Bull’s key aerodynamicists joined their team, and it seems to have stimulated them a bit. And there’s a core group of people who are ex-Jordan, who have consistently produced a good race car.”
“So, I don’t know enough about the structure of Mercedes’ design team, but I have to believe that they have enough Formula 1 experience and brainpower to be better next year. And I think that can only be beneficial for Formula 1.”
Jordan Criticizes Wolff’s Arrogance. Jordan Criticizes Wolff’s Arrogance
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