Toto Wolff has revealed that he was left disappointed upon his arrival at Mercedes a decade ago by the scruffy nature of the reception at their Brackley headquarters. Wolff has led the Silver Arrows to an unprecedented level of success over the last decade, winning eight successive Constructors’ Championship titles during their period of unparalleled dominance between 2014 and 2021.
It was far from plain sailing for Wolff when he first arrived at Mercedes, though, with the German outfit having been firmly in the midfield shortly before he was recruited to lead them in 2013. The levels of professionalism were nowhere near as high as they are now, which led Wolff into an early disagreement with his Mercedes colleagues on his very first day at work.
“When I stepped in here for the first time I was waiting to meet Ross Brawn, who I have great admiration for as an engineer,” said the Mercedes boss in an interview with Nasser Hussain as part of a new Sky Sports documentary, which is out on Wednesday.
“Whilst I was waiting it didn’t feel like a Formula One reception. There was an old Daily Mail on the table and an old coffee cup with dry coffee inside. When I went to the meeting I said it didn’t feel like a Formula One team.
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“The answer I got was that the Daily Mail or the old coffee cup doesn’t make the car faster, the engineering does. I disagreed because it shows whether you have attention to detail, whether you are a perfectionist or you seek excellence, and that starts with cleanliness and an immaculate environment, particularly in Formula One.”
Wolff’s penchant for perfectionism has served Mercedes well over the course of his time in charge, although they have fallen behind Red Bull since the technical regulations were overhauled at the start of last year. The Silver Arrows initially adopted a radical design philosophy which was very different to that of their Austrian rivals, with their bold approach failing to pay off in spite of their best efforts.
They went on to bring a major batch of upgrades to the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month, which saw the introduction of pronounced sidepods more closely resembling those of Red Bull and Aston Martin. The improvements made by Mercedes were clear to see from the word go, with Lewis Hamilton getting on the podium in Barcelona before doing so again in Canada earlier this month.
It remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be able to keep developing on an upward trajectory over the coming weeks, although Hamilton will be desperate for continued success in his bid to hunt down Max Verstappen at the top of the order. The Brit recently insisted that his rival could end up dominating for years to come if nobody manages to catch Red Bull, with the Austrian team simply operating in a league of their own as things stand.
“It’s just unfortunate that we still see the same sort of gaps between the teams,” said Hamilton after last month’s Miami Grand Prix. “I don’t know what the solution is for the future but we are going to have to adapt to these regulations, otherwise it could be the same as it is now for years.”
Secrets of Success is available on Sky Sports and Sky Documentaries from Wednesday.