Wolff's Leadership Shift Saves Mercedes from Crisis

Wolff’s strategic easing prevents Mercedes F1 collapse, reshaping his leadership style profoundly.

Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes F1, has reflected on his initial approach and subsequent management style at the helm of the Brackley-based team.

The Austrian, who has become a widely acknowledged and respected team boss following his succession of Ross Brawn, embodies dual personalities when it comes to managing his staff: he is demanding, readily applying pressure on both the organization he leads and its individual members, yet those within his team describe him as an infinitely loyal, supportive, and open-minded leader.

“When I joined this team, I did it in a particular way. I was very emotional and relentless,” he revealed in an interview with Formula HU.

“I kept our entire system under constant pressure, aiming to shake up the organization and I simply tried to make us a championship-winning team. Then, as time passed, the whole organization matured, which led to years of excellent and balanced performance, yet I remained as I was before.”

“Then came 2022, with its incredible emotions, when I thought ‘we can’t be this far behind, we will soon bounce back.’ But then I realized that it wouldn’t happen quickly. There were days when our pace seemed good, but it was like a false signal in the storm because then our engineers, the best engineers in the world, were saying ‘we don’t know, we really don’t know, we just don’t know.'”

“I couldn’t understand what was happening. This put me in a position where I had to realize that the way I was managing this organization was no longer working.”

What changes were then implemented?

“The application of pressure. The entire team was at risk of collapsing under it. I changed that. I became more pragmatic, I analyzed things more deeply and I gave people a chance instead of being too harsh and direct. I also realized that impatience does not make the car go faster. I had to become a different person, one with more patience and less impulsive emotions, more oriented towards the long term. Since I’m a shareholder of the team, my fight never stops and I can even think in terms of ten years, unless the other shareholders overthrow me.”

However, this was not enough and Wolff reveals that a person within the team, whose identity and position he prefers to keep confidential, changed everything.

“There was a moment towards the end of 2023 when I almost lost a very important person in my team due to the pressure, someone whom I respect and appreciate personally a great deal. They then told me: ‘listen, you can continue as you are, but I can no longer bear this pressure.'”

“I thought we should pause for a moment. I didn’t want to lose this person, so could I continue as I had all my life as a manager and entrepreneur, or did I need to change. It was a real shock and changed a lot in me. Fortunately, I received very positive feedback from team members: after the first few races went badly, I didn’t increase the pressure on them as I thought was right before.”

“Niki (Lauda) and I were very similar in this regard. We thought it was about pressure, pressure, and more pressure, but it simply didn’t work here. So I did the opposite, I began to act in a much more supportive manner.”