Wolff: Vowles’ departure will not weaken us

The head of Mercedes F1 Toto Wolff is sure that with the departure of chief strategist James Vowles, who will soon lead Williams, his team will not weaken …

Toto Wolff: “As a company we always have to be prepared for the departure of one of the employees – because they no longer enjoy their work, or someone offers better conditions. In this case, we lose nothing, because we have been planning succession in this area for many years.

We relied on James for a long time, but a few years ago we started talking about how we would work if one day he decided to do something else – at Mercedes or another team, and James prepared a replacement for himself .

Now we have a very talented team of strategists – nine people. They have recently started working independently in this area and before that under the supervision of James. This structure seems experienced and reliable to me. I don’t feel that the work of strategists will weaken us after Vowles leaves.

This week I told Hamilton that James was leaving – and he took it very calmly. He said this is a great opportunity for Vowles to take a step forward that should not be missed. He enjoyed working with James, they used to joke around on Sunday mornings when planning the race strategy, but he knows it’s time for Vowles to move on.