Toto Wolff, the 50-year-old Austrian chief executive, team principal and part-owner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team who was recently described by the New Yorker as someone who might breeze “past you in the airport, smelling good, wearing loafers and no socks,” talked openly yesterday about his team’s terrible, no-good year. Sitting with Oliver Steil, the CEO of the German company TeamViewera popular maker of remote support software, Wolff also described how the troubled racing team is counting, in part, on TeamViewer’s tech to give it an edge in its bid to recapture its former glory.

The two were speaking at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, and Wolff was cheered when he appeared before the crowd, owing in no small part to “Drive to Survive,” the Netflix series that has made him famous. (He finds this amusing, recounting to New Yorker writer Sam Knight how a young woman threw herself through the open window of his car to get her picture taken.)

Wolff also immediately acknowledged the obvious. “We won the championship eight times in a row,” he said, “but that is the past.” Mercedes, he continued, “just got the physics wrong . . . and got the concept of the car not in the right place,” he said, referring to the design of its floor, which he has previously pointed to as the root of the team’s lackluster year. (Every few years, the F1 teams — there are currently 10 altogether — are forced by the body

This story is part of 84 Days of Holidaya collection that helps you find the perfect gift for anyone.

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the musician or music lover in your life, you’ll want to consider the Focusrite Scarlett Solo. Whether they’re an aspiring singer, journeyman guitarist or gifted professional, the Scarlett Solo makes getting your music into your computer a breeze.

Why it’s a great gift: The Scarlett Solo is a stylish USB interface for connecting audio sources to your computer for recording or just goofing around. Use the XLR jack on the front to connect a pro-level microphone (with a phantom power control) to record your vocals or sing along with karaoke videos.

The second input is a 0.25-inch jack for connecting an instrument like a guitar or bass. There’s also a headphone jack with a Direct Monitor feature so you can hear the clean signal coming into the computer or the output from the computer itself. Or use the line outputs on the back to hook up your favorite speakers.

The Scarlett Solo couldn’t be more simple to set up, especially if you use Focusrite’s Scarlett Solo user guide, available on the company’s website. Once you’re hooked up, it’s easy to connect it to programs like Pro Tools, GarageBand and Ableton.

I’m only still learning to play guitar, so I haven’t made a ton of recordings yet, but I do get a kick out of plugging it in, firing up GarageBand and