‘Lewis is the superstar but others here are irreplaceable’
As Mercedes prepare for the British Grand Prix, Wolff is happy to have a diva behind the wheel
Lunch with Toto Wolff, on the top floor of Mercedes’ Silverstone motorhome, is subject to strict nutritional controls. Given that he regards food as a central component of performance, a starter of fennel salad, followed by steak leaner than some Tour de France cyclists, has been precisely calibrated to avoid excess. Even the post-prandial chocolates are of the sugar-free, carb-free kind. The “marginal gains” credo espoused by Team Sky has lost some of its lustre in recent years, but here at Formula One’s most dominant team it remains firmly in vogue.
This meeting comes at an intriguing juncture.
Since 2014, Mercedes have bulldozed everything in their path, amassing 3,074 points and four straight world titles, but of late a few fault-lines have emerged. A rogue computer algorithm cost Lewis Hamilton a seemingly certain victory in Melbourne, while a missed pit-stop in Austria dropped him from first to fourth, stripping him of his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel.
For Wolff, as the Silver Arrows’ chief executive and team principal, it is a test of leadership, not least because the blunder in Spielberg brought an extraordinary mea culpa by chief strategist James Vowles. Trying to mollify a furious Hamilton, Vowles said over the in-car radio: “Lewis, it’s James. I have thrown away the win. I’m sorry.” Within Mercedes, it was treated as a stirring display of individual accountability. To the watching world, it seemed a strangely public piece of selfflagellation.
Wolff pulls out his iphone to try to prove that the scars have healed. He shows a text message from Vowles that reads: “You have provided an incredible environment for me to grow and work. I am in a good place and, furthermore, I am glad what I did on Sunday.”
Explaining the decision by an employee to “throw himself under the bus”, in the words of Red Bull’s Christian Horner, Wolff says: “Lewis couldn’t get himself out of the negative spiral. James came out to stop that thinking loop in the car. The mindset we have tried to create is that failure is allowed. Only if you are able as a leader to admit that you got it wrong can you remedy the fault in the future.”
It is not always easy being in charge of Hamilton. A once-in-alifetime talent behind the wheel, chasing a record sixth win here at his beloved Silverstone tomorrow, he can turn truculent if events slip out of his control. “The best ones are also sensitive,” says Wolff. “You need a lion in the car that is giving it everything. If you are just losing a race, we have to explain to him why, because as a driver you are disconnected from it all.”
In a matter of
‘In my opinion, Lewis has another five very good years in him’
days, Hamilton should sign a contract extension that keeps him at Mercedes at least until the end of 2020. The deal, worth £40million a year, has been held up by wrangling over image rights.
Hamilton spreads himself far and wide, curating a fashion collection for Tommy Hilfiger and even cropping up on a song by Christina Aguilera, and he has credited his team for the freedom they allow him. Last year, Wolff described Mercedes’ car as a “diva”. The same label could be applied to his star driver. Hamilton’s recent griping about the studio lights being too bright at his press conferences, for example, was straight out of Mariah Carey’s playbook. But Wolff, an Austrian racer turned venture capitalist who holds a 30 per cent stake in Mercedes’ F1 operations, has found his own way of dealing with Hamilton’s rock-star ways.
“When I started this job, I went to a lecture – Jock Clear [Ferrari engineering director] organised it and got Saracens’ performance director along. We discussed how to deal with high-performance athletes. I played rugby, so I knew a bit about it.
“Saracens were annoyed that while some players turned up on time in the morning, parked their cars in the same place and looked after their sleep, there was another group that came late, considered
themselves artists, had other interests.
“But then they realised that they needed each other, that those who were a little different were the ones scoring the tries. My role is to extract the best from each person. Lewis and the engineers are the same to me in their respective roles. Lewis is the visible superstar in the car, but equally there are engineers here with irreplaceable abilities.”
Wolff has already had one driver, in Nico Rosberg, walk away at the height of his powers. Given Hamilton’s extramural interests, there is the question of whether he will follow suit. “I think Lewis is reflecting, ‘I love it, but what happens one day, when I don’t love it any more? When could that be?’ In my opinion, he has another five very good years in him.”
Will all those years be at Mercedes? That is yet to be decided, the one conspicuous omission on Hamilton’s CV being a stint at Ferrari. But in the short term, Wolff dares not contemplate losing him, even with his foibles.
“With exceptional individuals, you just have to accept that they have strong opinions,” he says. “That is not an easy character trait to deal with. But the super-nice, polite guy is not what we want in the team. I embrace high maintenance. We want the guys who win the trophies.”