Ferrari’s current plight in Formula 1 is a far cry from the glory days of Michael Schumacher. Few would’ve believed that any other team can manage a similar run of dominance as seen by the team in red a couple of decades ago.
However, Mercedes has completely wiped that hypothesis away with the sort of form that has seen it win the constructors’ championship as a matter of habit.
Former world champion Nico Rosberg, who was the last person since Lewis Hamilton to win the title, believes a lot of this has got to do with the team environment at Mercedes.
He believes that while Ross Brawn laid the foundation for this unprecedented success, Toto Wolff ensured that there have been no real hiccups along the way.
The fact that such a family-like atmosphere has been created at the team has made it tough for drivers to look for options elsewhere, even if the pay is better.
“One key ingredient of that was keeping the talent together in the way that Toto has,” Rosberg said.
“It’s unbelievable that every year you can imagine that Ferrari comes in and offers like 30% more salary to probably every single one of those Top-15 people within Mercedes and nobody has ever considered that.
“And that is testament to the culture that Toto has installed within Mercedes. How they all feel part of the family, they all love working there.
“So, they don’t even think about going somewhere else for a bit more money or something.”
Pre-season testing in Bahrain did not go as per plan for Mercedes, who faced problems on all three days.
Coupled with that is the fact that Red Bull appears to have made significant progress and looks set to give the Silver Arrows serious competition.
Rosberg, though, believes Mercedes will head into the season as favourites in spite of whatever transpired in Bahrain.
“Nobody can fathom somebody actually beating Lewis throughout the entire season on points,” he said.
“So, the money would still have to go on Lewis.”
Do you believe Red Bull can really get one over Mercedes and put an end to their dominance?
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