Mercedes’ Chief Communications Officer Bradley Lord has praised the “bond of loyalty” that permeates within the team, despite its recent struggles in Formula 1.
Lord, who has been part of the Brackley squad for the last 14 years, spoke in some emotional terms regarding the closeness between employees within the team, and how it has remained through good times and bad.
In an extensive interview with PlanetF1, Lord also gave an insight into the inner workings of the team, and how Team Principal Toto Wolff engages with the key areas of the team on race weekends, the Austrian content to allow them to work alongside him as opposed to a micro management style.
Lord said he was “lucky enough” to be part of a core group of individuals who are close to Wolff at all times, including technical director James Allison, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin and sporting director Ron Meadows.
“We’re in constant dialogue about the race weekend and how it’s going,” he said.
“So, the technical team and the sporting team are in the lead. Toto is not stepping in and trying to fly the plane but observing what’s happening and providing helpful inputs.
“The team on the pit wall is focusing on our two cars and how to maximise what they’re doing. We can step back a little more, following what the other teams are saying on the radio for example, and provide some additional situational awareness, hopefully!
“And my role is really supporting the team and supporting Toto in the external representation of the organisation.
“Be it working with our partners or also with the media to share some of that workload because, as the sport grows in popularity and grows in visibility, the demand to be able to talk about what we do outstrips the availability of one or two people to do that.
“It’s also supporting Toto in his role with relationships in the paddock, working with other teams, and around our young driver programme – I’ve been working, since the start of 2024, very closely with Gwen Lagrue, who is our driver development advisor and the brains behind that effort, and I help to coordinate that programme within the team.
“It’s fun and challenging to be learning about areas of the sport that until now have not been as close a focus area for me.”
‘Really special team culture’ makes everyone ‘go through fire’ for each-other
Lord spoke of how the team’s growing success embedded a special atmosphere that has lasted into its more recent dry spell, in which it has failed to seriously content for both World Championship titles.
“I think we’ve seen a really special team culture emerge,” he said.
“We’ve been through a run of success that was massively enjoyable, but also some really tough and low moments in those years as well.
“Obviously, the one that immediately springs to mind is Abu Dhabi [2021], but there have been others along the way too.
“We’ve had people part of that adventure, who we’ve lost along the way, like Niki [Lauda], who made huge contributions. It’s hard not to get emotional, even just thinking back to that time.
“There’s a real bond of loyalty and of having each other’s backs in a way that we will go through fire for our teammates to achieve the objective.
“That’s been the most special thing – the winning and everything else are lovely experiences, but sharing that road with people that you can work with, completely openly, trust completely, and being in an environment where those people are also not afraid to hold you to account and also sit you down and tell you when you’re not doing a good enough job.
“That’s the special bit of being part of the team.”
Lord appears to have no ambitions to move away from the Mercedes team, admitting everything he and the team have been through together would make it “very hard to think of walking through different doors or putting on a different shirt.
“I’ve not got any thoughts beyond staying at Mercedes and doing that as effectively as I possibly can. We’re in the very fortunate position that Toto isn’t just team principal, he’s also co-owner and shareholder of the team, so very much steering its future prospects as well.
“The focus right now is on maximising what’s in front of us and hopefully being part of the journey that sees the team come back to success next year, and part of the new chapter that will be starting as well with George [Russell] and Kimi [Antonelli].
“That’s a huge source of excitement for all of us. Having been on the team since our relationship with George started in 2017, and then a generation further down the road, our relationship with Kimi also began the same year, in 2017.
“It’s really exciting to go into next year as well with that homegrown lineup and to start to see how they perform and deliver as a teammate pairing.”
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