Toto's To-do List

THE TEAM PRINCIPAL OF MERCEDES F1 IS COOL UNDER PRESSURE … AND A COOL GUY TO WORK FOR

- Maurice Hamilton

As team principal at Mercedes F1, Toto Wolff is responsible for 1 800 employees spread across the racing team at Brackley and the Mercedes engine facility 45 minutes further up the road in England’s Northamptonshire. It is an onerous burden on the 47-year-old Austrian, yet he has carried it with aplomb. Later this year will mark what will almost certainly be a sixth successive brace of championships for Mercedes-AMG F1.

The team may be owned by Daimler AG in Stuttgart but one of the smartest moves by the parent company was to separate the race team as far as possible. To that end, Wolff became a 30% shareholder and the only team principal (Frank Williams aside, and he no longer holds the managerial influence he once had) to enjoy significant equity in the team he controls. In effect, Wolff is very much his own man; a double-edged sword but one which he has wielded with impressive dexterity – and subtlety – when needed. Despite its size, the atmosphere within the team is one of calm efficiency, driven by a blame-free culture and attention to small details in employees’ mental and physical welfare.

“We do mindfulness,” said Wolff, in a rare and revealing interview for BBC Radio. “We have actually rolled out meditation across the whole team. You need to utilise those marginal gains in order to extract the most out of your group of people. Staying energised, physically and mentally fit, is not trivial, particularly when you are racing in public 21 times in a season. The psychological strain which comes with that is tremendously challenging.”

Wolff understands engineers and boffins engaged in science and data might find the thought of meditation difficult to deal with.