Mercedes staff believe Toto Wolff ‘regrets’ how he managed the team during one Formula 1 season

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Mercedes are once again stuck in no man’s land this season, with second place in the constructors’ championship their best-case scenario.

Toto Wolff’s team sit 20 points behind Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, but McLaren could seal the title in the next few weeks, such is their advantage this year.

George Russell has been superb throughout 2025, with a race win and six podiums to his name.

On the other side of the garage, rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli has had a tougher time.

Jacques Villeneuve suggested Antonelli drove like a Formula 4 driver, and while Wolff has protected his young driver throughout the season, he couldn’t help but suggest that his performance across the Italian Grand Prix weekend was ‘underwhelming’.

The past few seasons haven’t gone to plan for Mercedes, with the ground effect era bamboozling their technical staff, and Lewis Hamilton struggling to get to grips with these cars, as his tricky start at Ferrari has highlighted.

Wolff has faced some challenges this year, but journalists Julianne Cerasoli and Frederic Ferret believe there’s one campaign that he still ‘regrets’ to this day.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff ‘regrets’ his handling of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the 2016 F1 season

Cerasoli and Ferret were speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast in the aftermath of Sunday’s race at Monza.

Russell finished P5, while Antonelli picked up two more points for Mercedes, but should have done better after a slow start and earned a five-second time penalty for being overly aggressive in his battle with Alex Albon.

Cerasoli explained: “I was speaking at Mercedes earlier, and they were telling me that Toto regrets the way he managed the team in 2016, because it was the same situation.

“So, the championship was won by the team, and they tried to impose a lot of rules between the drivers.

“No, when this happens, try to cover every scenario possible, and that didn’t end up well, because they just couldn’t cover everything, and then he was over-managed to fight between the two drivers, and that’s one of his regrets from his old days.

“But again, different people, you never know, they know better than us the people who they are managing and how it works.”

Ferret added: “But neither Lewis nor Nico were like Lando or Oscar or so.

“Nico has been all his life obsessed with winning against Lewis. He was always beaten, and he was beaten harshly in 2015, after going to the last round in 2014.

“Then, when he saw the opportunity, I can tell you that there were no more rules, and you could see that it was going ugly, it was not only on the track.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Nico Rosberg gives his verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s Italian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg and Hamilton had one of the toughest intra-team battles in recent memory during the 2016 season.

The German came out on top at the final race and immediately retired from Formula 1, but Hamilton suffered from more mechanical failures than his teammate.

Rosberg called Hamilton the ultimate benchmark as a teammate, and would go to extreme lengths, such as giving up cycling to reduce his muscle mass to save him hundredths of a second, to try and beat him.

The 2016 champion is now a regular pundit in the paddock and has been keeping a close eye on his former teammate’s progress.

Rosberg was far happier with Hamilton after Monza, as he had seen a change in his demeanour away from the car.

All that’s left is for Hamilton to find a way to extract more pace from the SF-25 as his first Ferrari podium should be just around the corner.