Bradley Lord recognizes that one of Mercedes F1’s main mistakes took place at Silverstone in 2021. Toto Wolff had already expressed regret on this subject, and the team principal’s comments are confirmed by those of the communications director .
Max Verstappen suffered a collision at 51 G in the first lap of the race after a collision with Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes relied on the words of a Red Bull employee, who assured that the Dutch driver was doing well, so as not to focus too much on the health of his rival, which seemed very insensitive.
“If we had to talk about something, we regret, I think, having taken the word of a member of the Red Bull team – and therefore having taken a little for granted – the state of Max after his accident at Silverstone in 2021” Lord told Planet F1.
“I think the way we were perceived to handle the aftermath of that accident was the starting point for a relationship that deteriorated dramatically over the course of this season.”
“We could have handled this in a different way that would have better reflected the concern we had for Max’s well-being at that time, regardless of our views on the incident and the rights and wrongs that he trained.”
Lord also regrets what this incident caused and Mercedes’ reaction on social networks: “There was that side of things, and then, even if it wasn’t intentional, having upset the relationship, and the relationship with the fan bases in a pretty extreme way that happened .”
“This is probably the time. If we could go back and change things, I think we would change our responses and what we did in that moment, in that afternoon.”
On the other hand, he thinks that communication was very good from Mercedes after the controversial final in Abu Dhabi: “The decision to say nothing and not communicate was, I hope, a powerful and elegant way to deal with such a difficult situation where no words would have been enough to express how we felt.”
Lord also reveals that one of the most interesting and amusing moments of his career was the secret announcement of Nico Rosberg’s unexpected retirement at the end of the 2016 season: “Another highlight was Nico’s retreat. It’s a room where you know a bomb is about to go off and no one has any idea what’s going to happen. pass.”
“It was a truly memorable moment. In our sport, it’s rare that a story isn’t leaked in advance. When he announced his retirement, it came as a real shock to fans. people present in the room, without there having been the slightest warning sign.”
“So that was an interesting thing to watch and be a part of. Writing the press releases late at night after he told us the news was also a fun time.”
