“You don’t want to have a team of superstars, you want to have a superstar team”: Mercedes F1 boss on team’s working culture and mentality

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff recently shed light on his vision for the team's work culture, aiming to put together a superstar team rather than rely on individual brilliance.

Since his early days as the team principal of the Silver Arrows, Wolff has been highlighting the importance of creating a positive work culture in the team on numerous occasions. He suggests the key is to ensure blame culture has no place within the team.

The Austrian believes creating such an environment wouldn't influence team results in the short period, but would be beneficial for the team in the longer haul. In a recent end-of-season Q and A session, he said (via PlanetF1.com):

"You don’t want to have a team of superstars, you want to have a superstar team. That means working together is much more than just being colleagues and being on a professional journey."

"There’s so much more to it and if we know that we are an organization that empowers, that is a safe place, you can achieve so much more. Maybe not every single season, but overall over the long term, you’re going to be in a much better place," he added.

After enjoying unprecedented success in the Turbo-hybrid era, the eight-time Constructors' champions have won a single race in the past two seasons. Wolff hopes to fight to regain lost glory, as he believes that cultivating the right team culture will pay dividends over time.

"I think there is no single most important factor," Wolff said. "If you look at F1, you may believe that there is a silver bullet, something that unlocks all the performance in the car, but there isn’t. It is all the work on the small items done properly. If you can put all of this together, then you have a winning package."

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F1 pundit reckons Mercedes "are not the force they were"

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle critiqued Mercedes' results in the past two seasons, as he concludes the Silver Arrows were no longer the force they once used to be.

After winning the Constructors' title for eight consecutive years, Mercedes dropped the ball when the ground effect regulations were introduced in 2022. The team has failed to show significant progress over the past two seasons as it continues to trail Red Bull.

Brundle wrote in his Sky F1 column:

"I think there’s no doubt about it, Mercedes quite clearly are not the force they were. Because they didn’t get the 2022 car right and they didn’t fix it for 2023. And there has been a lot of personnel movement because they’re obviously very attractive people from the era of total domination that they had."

Martin Brundle concluded that 2024 will stand as a pivotal year for Mercedes in their pursuit to reclaim past glories.