How Euro 2020 can inspire Mercedes’ Formula 1 title fight

UEFA Euro 2020 – postponed for a year due to the pandemic – has recently dominated both the back and front pages and in recent press conferences even resulted in numerous football questions being asked of the F1 drivers.

England’s success against Germany last night gave fans the chance to believe that after over 50 years of injury, maybe – just maybe – football could come home.

Sport has a unique ability to unite and inspire. For the majority of the 40,000 fans at Wembley last night and millions of people across the country, England’s success has brought the kind of joy that has largely been missing since the pandemic began, which makes it all the cuter.

F1 fans will enjoy similar emotions in the near future. This weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix will feature the largest crowd since the pandemic began thanks to a change in government policy, with over 90,000 spectators expected on race day.

It will also mark a return of the orange clad stands as Dutch fans get to travel, unite behind championship leaders Max Verstappen and heal some wounds from a shocking knockout of the Netherlands at Euro 2020.

Silverstone will have a similar story after the British Grand Prix was added to the UK government’s event research program. The majority of the 140,000 fans expected on race day are likely to support Lewis Hamilton in hopes that he can fight back and put his challenge for an eighth title back on track, drawing inspiration from the efforts of his compatriots on the football field.

Toto Wolff wants to do that for the entire Mercedes team. The native of Vienna saw the Mercedes F1 team boss together with F1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali Austria’s round of 16 game against Italy.

Stefano Domenicali, CEO, Formula 1, with Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

The match turned out to be a thriller. Austria had ruled out a goal for offside as they chased a surprise, only Italy then scored two goals in extra time to lead 2-0. Austria pulled one back to set up a nervous final five minutes but the game ended 2-1.

“Stefano got really nervous,” remembers Wolff. “Because the fighting spirit this team has shown, playing against what are probably the best European teams for 90 minutes and even scoring a goal, that was one thing.

“But the incredible performance for me is the heart they showed after going 2-0 down. They never gave up. The mentality was always there: ‘We can still level. We can still go to penalties’. “

This refusal to give up and give in is exactly what Wolff wants to instill in his Mercedes team, which is facing its toughest challenge in Formula 1 since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era. Four wins in a row for Red Bull have widened the points gap at the top of both championships, while Mercedes did not seem to give any answers after its defeat in Austria last Sunday. Even when Wolff discussed the plan to stop the development and the possible effects on the title fight this year, he made it clear that the title race was not over yet.

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“If you have a lot of heart and are a fighter, you can work your way out again after a weekend like ours,” said Wolff after the race.

“We will do that, even if it feels a bit like that for the Austrian football team on Saturday evening. We did everything, we fought – but we lost.”

To be inspired by other sports is nothing new for Wolff. He’s an avid rugby fan and once joked that he had “a great international rugby career in Austria’s junior national team – but there were only 15 people playing so they let me in!” Rugby squad Ceri Evans is invited to visit the Mercedes team and takes much inspiration from the construction of the legacy of the All Blacks team and the value of wearing the team jersey.

Gareth Southgate with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

But there has also been overlap with England coach Gareth Southgate in recent years. Southgate – much like Wolff – has established himself as a phenomenal coach who helps harness the talent of the English squad in ways that so many of their predecessors failed to do. No wonder the two have found a lot to talk about and share their management approaches.

Southgate visited Mercedes headquarters in 2019 – in the summer after England made it to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup – and filmed a section with Wolff for Channel 4. Southgate was given a full factory tour and even tried out a wheel cannon for a practice pit stop. Before the EM, he talked about the inspiration he got from visiting Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast.

“I had a few days at Mercedes and what intrigued me was that the attention to detail in every area was the best I’ve ever seen and the best environment I’ve ever been in,” said Southgate.

“You have to understand the role of each individual, understand each other’s world, and have a pretty good measure of what excellence looks like in each area. But I have no way of knowing what all of my employees in each department are doing. They are the experts, I have to give them the space to do their job at the best possible level. If everyone does, then the accumulation of all of these things gives us the best chance of winning.

“I liked the fact that when you enter the office there is an F1 car in the middle of the office, which in itself is a bold statement. It was a reminder that we are all working to get this car on the road and form this team. This is how it has to be for our employees – that every piece is important. “

Wolff is now looking for this kind of unity and strong team spirit in the face of the toughest challenge this generation of the Mercedes team has faced. It may not have the fastest car, but Mercedes is not letting the tough time destabilize. The existing core values ​​are too strong to allow this to happen.

Be it Austria’s brave fight against Italy or England’s defeat against Germany at Wembley Stadium, Euro 2020 can provide Mercedes with solid inspiration to turn the tide against Red Bull and begin their fight.

And judging from Southgate’s comments, if this English team can go all the way and pick up a first major trophy since 1966, Mercedes’s success in F1 will have played a small part in informing and inspiring its own management approach.

England fans

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images