The real story behind Mercedes' turnaround
There was talk that Mercedes was in 'crisis' during pre-season testing, as its initial car lacked pace and its drivers expressed concerns. While those fears proved wide of the mark, the negatives became the foundation of its Melbourne fightback
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has always lived off the mantra that the day his rivals should fear the most, are those when his team has suffered pain.
Last year, for example, he famously used Mercedes' defeat at the Belgian Grand Prix as a focal point for his team to dig deeper and push towards what would be its fifth straight championship double.
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Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
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