How a dialog with Alain Prost impressed Toto Wolff in managing Mercedes’ Method 1 drivers

Toto Wolff has revealed {that a} dialog with Alain Prost early in his personal Method 1 profession impressed the Mercedes Group Principal in learn how to cope with fractious relationships between his drivers.

Beneath Wolff’s management, Mercedes has secured a plethora of titles and victories, notably with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg because the Silver Arrows dominated F1 within the mid-2010s.

However this got here at a value, with Wolff having to cope with a number of flashpoints following on-track collisions in one of many sport’s most heated rivalries.

Talking after final weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Wolff recalled a dialog he had with four-time World Champion Prost, who had his personal legendary rivalry with McLaren staff mate Ayrton Senna that resulted in a long-lasting feud even after they raced for separate groups.

“It was very early in my Method 1 life, I used to be at Williams, and I bear in mind, as [if] it was yesterday, I used to be on the grid, and I feel he [Prost] was concerned in Renault again within the day or one thing,” stated Wolff.

“I stated to him, I noticed it on TV, the entire thing, and the way did that escalate between the 2 of you, nearly in a naive method as a result of I did not perceive the dynamics between the drivers, and he stated the issue was that you just by no means knew whether or not you have been favoured.

“He stated at instances I felt that, it was me, it was Alain that was the one which was favoured after which at totally different phases of the years, it was Ayrton.

“He stated that created a dynamic of distrust within the staff and also you felt that your direct opponent could also be given benefits. Even when it is simply emotional on the finish the drivers are little traumatised eight-year-olds that have been put in a go-kart, they have been scared, it was a mother or father’s dream that they have been chasing.

“Ultimately you find yourself in Method 1 they usually let you know, now it’s important to be, it’s important to play the staff recreation and it is Mercedes or it is McLaren, so it’s extremely troublesome.”

Whereas not as extreme because the Hamilton/Rosberg dynamic, Wolff has needed to step in between his present drivers this season, noticeably in Canada when Kimi Antonelli and George Russell went wheel-to-wheel.

However the Austrian believes a clear and open method in how the staff offers with such points has made Mercedes stronger, with each Antonelli and Russell obeying staff orders this season to assist the opposite driver regardless of being in a battle for the title.

“You must really feel emotionally protected by the staff and I feel for those who do not do this and you retain it clear and balanced, that may create moments the place the motive force simply loses confidence and from that studying for me was, okay, I can by no means do this,” he stated.

“I should be clear, and if at some point we determine to play the staff recreation in no matter kind, I’ll say so. I shall be saying, these are the principles now, and we’ll be very open and clear.

“And if we’ve a dialogue as a result of the motive force disagrees or somebody within the staff says we must always do it in a different way, then high-quality, let’s have the dialogue. So, I’d suppose that that is how we need to behave.”