Norbert Haug is to leave Mercedes after more than 20 years in his role as the company’s head of motorsport. In that period Haug oversaw the company’s involvement in F1, sports cars, DTM, Champ Car and Formula 3.
“Norbert was the face of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport programme for more than 20 years,” said Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz Cars and CEO of Daimler AG. “For me, he put his stamp on a whole era and, as a highlight, he was responsible for the successful comeback of the Silver Arrows to Formula 1.
Under Haug, Mercedes-Benz won six F1 world titles and 87 grands prix, most of them with McLaren.
Question to Joe: to retire (and enjoy life and the new GF), or to manage a new challenge some place else – what’s your gut feeling? How much did this influence Schumacher’s decision – or vice versa? Or is there a Lauda-aspect in the story…?
Honestly, I think he was shoved out of the plane. I don’t think it would have been his choice. Having said that, I do not think it is necessarily a bad move.
Didn’t see this one coming! Do you think Lauda and Schumacher will be promoted to a management position Joe?
Lauda is already chairman. How much higher can he go? Schumacher wants to jump out of aeroplanes and fall off motorcycles. I am sure he would get very bored sitting in committee meetings. I don’t see him getting a role with the team. Perhaps with the FIA, but the same comment applies.
I wonder if that is a reflection of the under-performance of the Mercedes team post Brawn GP?
He has certainly been a familiar figure in the F1 world, I’m sure everyone will wish him well, possibly retiring now?
The rumour on the grapevine is they’ve replaced him with Dany Bahahahahar……
I think you need to chop down that grapevine and look for a new one.
Joe, do you have any idea what will Norbert Haug do now ? Retire?
No idea
Any off the record chat as to why he’s leaving? Is it the last two seasons results alone or something else?
The question that most people have right now is: “Is this a normal retirement or is this the result of the Mercedes F1 team not performing in the last 3 years?”
I hope it is because of retirement, if you look at what he has done for Mercedes in those 20+ years (not just in F1 but also in DTM, CART, GT, Le Mans) than I can hardly imagine that they would fire him for the under performing Mercedes F1 team (It would be more logical to fire Ross Brawn for that).
A good moment? On the back of a lacklustre 3-year period for the works team he championed, on the eve of a big driver shake-up and ahead of a year that could see everything swing in their favour?
I’m thinking Niki-the-rat had something to do with this
I totally agree with your headline, Joe.
Wow, did not see that coming, the first casualty of Lauda?
Shame he won’t be about any more – he seemed like a likeable guy on telly and quite a racer. Retiring?
A good moment to go… in order to put a bit of distance between himself and Lauda?
What is the issue between Lauda and Norbert?
Off Topic, probably not new, but at least it is an official source: The German competition authorities have been notifed that Diageo is buying a controlling stake in United Spirits…
07.12.2012
B2-114/12
Unternehmen:
Diageo plc., Großbritannien/Erwerb v. Ant. u. Kontr: ü. United Spirits Ltd., Ind.
Produktbereiche:
Vertrieb von Spirituosen (Whisky, Wodka, Liköre) und Weinen
No, not new. I wrote about it some time ago.
Good bye Norbert… another ‘face’ departs. Although regarding Dieter’s comment; ‘successful’ in that they did in fact come back, or that they were successful??!
Anyway, I’ll miss him and who’s going to take over then?
In either context the word is superfluous.
Take anything McLaren out of ‘their’ F1 ‘success’, what is left?
I can think of the Honda, sorry Brawn, that became the even sorrier Mercedes.
Apologies to you Joe, you report what’s happening and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
lop sided aint it? Take anything Mercedes and minus 80 million quid for each of the last 14 years of their partnership and McLaren start looking a tad Williams like.
Isn’t it an odd moment to go, they’ve finally put together a team which at least on paper should have a chance of winning, there are new regulations right around the corner which should help them and he’s going.
Sounds more like he was retired.
A sound assessment
Then, how is it a good moment to go? Bit surprised by the headline, tbh.
Are you sceptical about the management structure and likelihood of success? They certainly seem to have all the right ingredients, although I’ll admit that I was pretty taken aback when they appointed Niki.
So that answers the question I asked some months back when you wrote about the new multi director organisation at Merc but did not mention Norbert.
Obviously I cannot know, but he always seemed an amiable fellow from his UK tv appearances.
The end of another era in motorsport, one of the big names disappearing.
Is he retiring or dabbling from a distance?
I am not sure that amiable is quite the right word, but I suspect that depended on who you were.
I’ve been told by people who knew Norbert before he stepped into F1 that is not as amiable as looks during race interviews.
Does anyone here think he was sort of fired? I am amongst those who think the timing is very very odd.
I knew Norbert before he stepped into F1 and he was a very amiable fellow then.
For some reason Bobby Rahal just popped up in my mind ? Is it conceivable that a couple of years down the line there are only two engine makers left?
No, I think there will be at least three. I also think that other manufacturers will get involved when they see the value of the new F1 and when the global economy looks like it is heading upwards again.
VW/Porsche perhaps?
Can’t see GM wanting to get into it, but one of the Japanese, maybe Honda?
Peter
I would love for VAG to get involved with one of their brands, it wont happen in the short term but having porsche, lambo or bugatti engines would be interesting.
I remember a while ago rublings from them saying that having both Porsche and Audi at Le Mans and its supporting series’ did not make much sense, hopefully one of them will migrate to F1.
It is a shame norbert haug has been given the elbow and it seems he is the fall guy for their failures, the saying ive heard been said by team after team is ”WE WIN AS A TEAM, WE LOSE AS A TEAM” maybe im being sentimental about norbert, i know the is no room for sentimenality in F1, i still think they made a mistake like schumacher made a mistake. I know there are things brewing in mercedes team i know nothing about. We must not forget norberts achievments with McLAREN, when i saw him being interviewed on tv he came over to me as a humble guy with a huge task….. I cant help it i am a norbert haug fan not mercedes but a norbert fan….
Niki will do anything to stay in power. As a driver, great. As a human bying, a crippled bying.
Amiable or not is irrelevant. The impression I gleaned (from my race-weekend armchair) was that Norbert was an effective force behind several team shopfronts who managed to avoid a good deal of the surface noise. Of course, this may be a completely wrong. But if it isn’t, why has he been pushed and who is doing the pushing?
When it was announced that Lewis Hamilton had signed for Mercedes my first thought was that he must know something that the rest of us don’t. I assumed that there would be changes in the management of the team but I didn’t expect Haug to be one of those going.
Hi Joe – Interesting times with Norbert exiting the organization and Andy Cowell getting promoted to overall chief of Mercedes’ F1 engines at Brixworth. In the recent past Brixworth has always been run by a Mercedes business person, customarily someone recruited from outside of racing.
From all that I know, Andy is an excellent engineer – with the new engine regs coming up fast, shouldn’t he be concentrating on engineering rather than spending his time managing 400 people?
People “retire” for differing reasons but I can’t imagine Norbert being happy with his lot. Just my opinion…
Joe, any idea on whom might replace Norbert?
Niki Lauda sort of has…
Any possibilities that NH might end up at McLaren? It was my perception that he always got on the the guy there, or am I wrong?
I think they worked together well.
Next one to go will be Ross Brawn, Daimler Benz were sold a pup and they know it, NH would have been influential in that decision and is now paying the price. Niki is a new start but like everything DB do it is very much results orientated and he will be shown the door like NH if things don’t improve dramatically.
If they fail to keep Ross, they’re much less competent (or much dumber) than I imagine.
Is anyone making bets on whether Lauda will do better than Haug?
As a team boss Niki was not really succesful. And as a special adviser to Jean Todt at Ferrari he was not very “constructive” and had to give up that job upon Monty’s request….
Joe – James Allen makes much of Luada`s appointment. I`d always assumed he was more of a figurehead rather than an effective management team member. Any comment?
I had assumed that Lewis Hamilton looked at Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh, and then he looked at Norbert Haug and Ross Brawn, and then decided that he would be happier working at Mercedes Benz. I wonder what he thinks now? Perhaps you might get a chance to ask him over lunch.
We have to remember though that Nikki Lauda was appointed for a reason, and it probably wasn’t to make sure that everybody was happy.
May there be life after mercedes norbert….
Norbert now has something in common with Michael Schumacher, both forced into retirement by Mercedes. Hang on Michael wins this race, he was also forced into retirement by Ferrari.
I thought it was unkind when I saw the headline on a well-known F1 site -”Schumi: Haug leaves a massive hole”. We can’t all be training all hours of the day Michael…
I wonder whether Lewis is still as confident about joining Mercedes now?
I’ve read quite a bit about Mr Lauda, a great driver but opinions differ about his time at Jaguar. My memory is cloudy but wasn’t Jaguar a bit of a shambles towards the end? I feel less optimistic about Mercedes chances now. I do believe Lewis can win races next year if he can put the car on the front row in qualifying at certain tracks where overtaking opportunites are limited.
I too would not be suprised to see Norbert in the pit lane for McLaren!
surely no great surprise here , daimler benz have now rationalised their motorsport companies ,100 % ownership , and all three are now run by experienced technical ‘principals’
wonder if lewis knew this was coming !
personally I expect results !
nicky lauda ? executive chairman is a figurehead ,he won’t be telling ross what to do ….TV interviews / making nice with the press joe ?
>nicky lauda ? executive chairman is a figurehead ,he won’t be telling ross what to do …
I’ll lay money that no-one’s told him that, and that he absolutely will. Of course, I may nevertheless be utterly wrong…