Toto Wolff: F1 teams need more than one boss
Toto Wolff reviews his vision of the current F1. For him, the model of a team with a single boss is called to disappear.
The strongman at Mercedes believes that Formula 1 teams that have only one boss will have to evolve in the future as it is a practice that is called to disappear for him. Since taking over at Mercedes, Toto Wolff has played a key role in the conquest of the title by the German team, since the departure of Ross Brawn.
This season, Toto Wolff has been in charge of the commercial and sporting aspects of the team, while Paddy Lowe has taken control of more technical matters. The Austrian leader believes, in an interview with Autosport, that the system Mercedes has established is much better suited to the demands of the F1 world: “We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past. The structure should not be based solely on one boss. I have a very different opinion on this point. By giving someone a mega-technical role to represent the team, in order to interact with the FIA, FOM, major sponsors, and Daimler’s board, you lose the impact of your effort. One of the key elements is to place people in roles according to their abilities and skills, each person should stay in their domain of competence.”
« You can train people, but it’s very dangerous. Just look at the Peter Principle, a technical director being promoted to a team manager is not necessarily a good thing. Today’s F1 teams are no longer the same as they were five or even ten years ago. You have to place people where they get the best results and then give them everything they need to maximize their performance,” he continues.
According to Toto Wolff, if each team member stays in their preferred field, then a team can only be stronger, this is what happened on the Mercedes side. He also commented on the departure of Ross Brawn: « The transition was quite transparent. For Ross, it was difficult to accept that his role was changing, because he thought he was the reference point in F1 as he expressed it. However, in a team of 800 people, including 400 on the Brixworth side, he is not a unique reference point. Yes, it is the responsibility of one person in the end, but everyone needs to work in their area of expertise. Paddy has always been clear from the start that this is how he will position himself in the team and it is happening smoothly in the stable. »
