PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑03 Mar 2024, 19:54
You can single out Horner. The rest are founders and engineers whose contributions aremore obivous. Wolff did just as much if not more than Horner does. No need to diminish his contributions which mainly lie in how he manages people, resources and sets the culture.
Brawn did all the work to set the team up after he took over from Honda. He brought Schumi, Costa and a few others from the Red Baron era. When Mercedes did an illegal tyre test in 2013, Toto left Brawn to publicly defend the team on his own, I imagine he didn't want to be the face of the team if they were found guilty. Brawn's deep knowledge of rules, sport and precedents, as well as his abundant eloquence saved Mercedes' face that day. For his great work, he was given the boot - some culture that was!
On the other hand, it was Lauda who worked with Ecclestone to bring Hamilton to Mercedes. Toto was a businessman who bought his place in the team. Nobody can deny he had a great business nous to get inside both Williams and Mercedes at that time, but that was the extent of his prowess. PU was a beast for 8 straight years and allowed the team to make a car with loads of downforce without a care in the world for drag. Good suspension innovations were a nice addition to supplement their aero platform. Toto was a smart investor who knew not to get in the way of experts doing their stuff, I'll give him that.