Norbert Haug, former Mercedes motorsport vice president, has blasted Germany’s outlook on Formula 1 saying it has “turned into a tragedy.”
Haug left the Mercedes in the team in 2012 after bringing the team back to the sport after 40 years in 1993. The team joined the grid again in partnership with Sauber, although they were not named. In 1994, they officially badged the Sauber engines which they built together with Ilmor.
Team principal and CEO Toto Wolff joined the team alongside F1 legend Niki Lauda in 2012 prior to Haug’s exit.
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Haug said during an interview with RND that the sport has turned to a tragedy in Germany. Hey explained:
“In Germany, Formula 1 has turned into a tragedy that every motorsport enthusiast can only be ashamed of.
“Between 1994 and 2016, there were German world champions like an assembly line, seven titles from Michael Schumacher, four in a row from Sebastian Vettel and finally the last one to date from Nico Rosberg in 2016.
“Mercedes, with its partner teams McLaren and Brawn GP with Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button, won four drivers’ championships between 1998 and 2009, the Mercedes factory team was constructors’ champion eight times in a row from 2014 to 2021, winning six world titles with Hamilton and one with Rosberg.
Haug continued:
“For a dozen years, in the late 1990s and 2000s, there were two Formula 1 races a year in Germany, in front of full ranks and over 100,000 spectators. On RTL, 12 million people watched, instead of three million today.
“In 2010, there were still seven German Formula 1 drivers in one season. Today, Nico Hulkenberg still has one in what is, at best, a second-rate team, and Mick Schumacher is a promising substitute driver, but at least in the right team. There hasn’t been a German Grand Prix for a long time.
“A zealous green auto objector could not have developed a less ambitious and less successful German Formula 1 strategy. This specifically excludes the Mercedes works team, which, correctly, operates out of England and has two great English drivers.”
