Formula One promising to be fast, furious by 2017
Mercedes boss says series must deliver faster, louder, more spectacular race cars
MONTREAL— Christian (Toto) Wolff is executive-director of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. This means he runs the Mercedes Formula One team, whose drivers — world driving champion Lewis Hamilton and runner-up Nico Rosberg — are favoured to not only win this weekend’s Grand Prix du Canada but finish no worse than second on the podium.
Wolff is also a man who takes 30 or 40 words to say what could be said in 10.
Asked how he manages to keep Hamilton and Rosberg from tearing out each other’s throats, he launches into a discussion on team-building. Asked if it’s healthy for one team to dominate a racing series like Mercedes is doing in F1 —16 victories in19 races last year and five of six in 2015 — he says maybe yes, maybe no. And when queried about the interaction in F1 between business, sport and entertainment, he resorts to using military im- agery to make his point.
During a discussion Friday with Canadian reporters, he was succinct on just one subject: possible technological changes coming in 2017 that will be geared toward spicing up the show, which needs a goose. TV ratings are down and attendance — other than the odd place, like Canada — is declining. One improvement could see the cars made to go faster. Much faster.
Wolff, speaking before Friday afternoon’s practice session was called off after Hamilton slid into the tires in the rain, explained that the target for 2017 is to make the cars go five to six seconds a lap faster, with more G forces on braking, more G forces in the corners, wider tires, louder engines and a more spectacular-looking car in general. Why? “F1 has to become more extreme,” he said. “If a 30-year-old guy goes into a cinema and sees The Fast and the Furious, he thinks it’s pretty normal to finish a race backwards. Or to roll the car and land on four wheels and cross the line and still make it.
“It’s going to be pretty tough for us to challenge that. But you see what attracts audiences: it is definitely spectacular racing and something F1 has to shoot for.”
At the same time, and almost in the same breath, he praised F1 for being environmentally responsible.
“We can be very proud of the power units we have in the car,” he said. “We consume one-third less fuel; we use 100 kilograms (of fuel) now while before it was 150 or more. We deploy more horsepower through a combination of internal combustion and hybrid energy. We are seeing our technologies being transferred into road cars, and Formula One was always at the pinnacle of racing — not only because of the best drivers but also the most spectacular technology.”
The elephant in the room since the F1 circus arrived in Montreal this week has been how the team got over the gaffe that saw Hamilton lose the Grand Prix of Monaco to Rosberg two weeks ago, as well as the team’s reaction to Rosberg’s crashing into Hamilton at the Grand Prix of Belgium last fall.
Both incidents created hard feelings between the rivals.
This is when Wolff presented his thesis on team-building:
“It is important to understand everybody’s ambitions and objectives,” he said. “We have 1,200 employees who are working to deliver a world championship. Managing the drivers is hard because they are alone in their car and are looking at winning Formula One races and the world championship.
“But while you have personal objectives, there are joint objectives in making the team successful. I believe you can align those different objectives. But sometimes it needs compromise, like in any relationship.”
The forecast for Saturday is sunny. There will be a morning practice session and then qualifying will be held Saturday afternoon to set the grid for Sunday’s race.
Before the rains came, Hamilton was fastest and Rosberg was just a tick behind. There is no reason to believe anything will really change as the weekend unfolds.