Former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has taken aim at Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, insisting the latter's admission of failure of its car's concept "disingenuous" and "crass".
In Bahrain, after his team's low-key performance in qualifying, a candid Wolff faced the media and acknowledged that Mercedes' zero sidepod concept that has been prevalent on its cars since last year was flawed and would not allow the team to be competitive in 2023.
As Mercedes attacks its issues head-on and prepares updates and an alternative sidepod design that will be introduced later this season, the team published an open letter to its fans last week in which it explained its recovery plan but also made clear that there would be no finger-pointing or knee-jerk reactions within the team.
©Mercedes
But Jordan believes that Wolff's admission of failure equates to a proper indictment of the Brackley squad's design team, and accuses the Austrian of not bearing any responsibility for his outfit's hardship.
"He’s the CEO, he’s the boss. The buck stops with him. This is happening under his watch," Jordan said, speaking on his Formula For Success podcast.
"To blame or criticise anybody in his design team is actually disingenuous. It’s really crass."
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Jordan's comments suggest that last week's open letter should have been personally written and signed by Mercedes' team principal and co-owner.
"I hate to hear that, because he must be a man, stand up and take it on the chin and say, ‘My team, my people, we have failed to get the job successfully done at this moment. However, there are times ahead that we’re looking forward to and we will be there much stronger than we were in 2022’."
Despite his criticism of the Mercedes team's leader, Jordan believes Wolff remains the right man for guiding the F1 outfit.
"I think that Toto is strong enough, big enough and man enough to front this up and actually sort it out."
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