Toto Wolff builds ‘superstar team’ with Mercedes performance strategy revealed

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff dons his headphones in the garage.
Toto Wolff has given an insight into the key mentality that he tries to instil at Mercedes as they look to restore their past F1 glories.
A solitary win since the end of the F1 2021 season is a far cry from the totally dominant days and years that came before throughout F1’s turbo hybrid era.
Red Bull are now the respective kings and queens of the F1 castle, but Mercedes are trying their damnedest to take back the crowns that were once theirs.
Toto Wolff reveals vision for Mercedes team building
Irrespective of the tough times that have come over the last couple of the years, it was put to Wolff by one fan that a sense of “family” remains at Mercedes.
Wolff said the key to that is ensuring there is a team which doesn’t have a blame culture and not one that is full of egos.
“You don’t want to have a team of superstars, you want to have a superstar team,” Wolff said in an end-of-season Q and A session.
“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 organisation 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.
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Asked what the most important factor of performance strategy is, Wolff replied: “I think there is no single most important factor.
“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.”
Wolff also conceded that it has not always been the case where he has felt the need to rally the troops at Mercedes during the trying times – the opposite has needed to happen, too.
“It wasn’t always me that needed to boost the morale,” he said. “Sometimes I needed the support and all of us together were trying to pass the baton to each other to perform best at any given moment.
“It’s good that we have an organisation where we support each other.”
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