Kravitz praises Wolff: 'He is still the best leader in F1'

For years, Toto Wolff was the man in the F1 paddock. Since the '22 season, everything has changed. While Red Bull Racing introduced a lightning-fast car after the then-sweeping rulebook change, Mercedes - led by team boss Wolff - was completely wrong. At the beginning of last season, Wolff and consorts had the chance to go Red Bull's way in terms of concept, but the German team decided otherwise. A strange decision, Sky Sports' Ted Kravitz believes.

Up front, Kravitz believes, Wolff is still the best team boss in Formula 1. "In leadership, in direction, in inspiring the team, which I still think he is the best leader, watching him from the outside," said the pit reporter in a podcast by the British broadcaster. "People at Mercedes would jump off a cliff for Toto Wolff, wouldn't they? They would go into battle with him. He just instills that leadership."

Kravitz suspects this is largely due to the many successes Mercedes has celebrated with Wolff at the helm. Moreover, the analyst sees that Wolff can keep his drivers happy like no other and sponsors would run away with the Austrian. "The only thing I've marked him down on was his keenness to throw the concept away so publicly after qualifying in Bahrain."

Kravitz did not see an equally calm Wolff

In fact, Kravitz already does not understand why Mercedes had built on the not-so-successful '22 concept at all, instead of rigorously going the way of Red Bull Racing. "Toto must have signed it off. Otherwise, he could have said as a leader, 'I disagree, let's go with the Red Bull concept'. But whatever reason, they didn't. He signed it off. And then for that very first interview, which I remember vividly, coming out so strongly. It kind of took me aback when he said it. He said, 'this car is bad'. This was after qualifying at the first race. It wasn't even after the race."

With Wolff's analysis then, Kravitz agrees: the Mercedes was a bad car. "But to immediately throw the whole concept in the trash can then was the only way that I'm slightly thinking that it wasn't quite the calm, assured Toto leadership that we've seen," Kravitz said.