Wolff not happy to be dubbed Mercedes 'leader'

Mercedes principal Toto Wolff admits he's not happy with being described as the team's leader, as he believes that there are other people within the squad who deserve similar recognition.

Wolff has certainly been a key figure at Brackley since becoming team principal in 2013, working with other high profile figures including Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda to take the team to eight consecutive constructors titles.

James Vowles was also an important part of the team before leaving at the end of 2022 to take over as team principal in his own right at Williams.

In recent years, Wolff - who is also chief executive officer and a co-owner of the team - is very much the top figure at Mercedes F1, and he feels that there are others within the set-up deserving of recognition for their efforts.

“I really struggle with the word ‘leader’," he said on the latest High Performance podcast. "A leader for me is that you stand above your people, not with them.

"But there’s so many leaders in this organisation," he insisted "Everybody tries to be the best team or yourself in the role."

• Read also: Wolff admits anger over Abu Dhabi 2021 ‘still goes with us’

“I’m trying to contribute best as a team principal," he explained. "Lewis [Hamilton] is a leader as a driver. James Allison is a leader with his engineers.

“Only if we [each] do good in our position, and we share those objectives, are we going to be successful," he added.

Wolff argued that the very term 'leader' is antithetical to the core belief of Mercedes as a collective endeavour that succeeds though collaboration prioritises the group as a whole.

“There’s this metaphor that we have: we are not like a bunch of five-year-olds playing football, all running behind the ball, but we let the ball run," he commented. “We stay where we are, in our centre of competence.”

While Wolff has always appeared calm and confident in the role of principal, he admitted that he's always battle against self-doubt, especially in the last few seasons with Red Bull usurping Mercedes at the top.

“Every day there’s a moment where I’m thinking, ‘Am I really performing to my own expectations here?'” he said. “It starts from the morning: have I used the morning positively?

"I’m reading the news in the morning for a long time," he continued. Did I read the right thing to put me in a good state of mind to perform in the morning, or did I read some trash?"

Wolff said that every day he was literally "dissecting everything I do. Is it the right thing that I’m doing?”

Mercedes finished as runners-up to Red Bull last season, but it currently down in fourth place with three races left to go in the 2024 championship with McLaren and Ferrari now th top two teams.

The squad has won three races this season - twice with Hamilton at Silverstone and Spa and again with George Russell at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

But next year will see a pivotal change for Mercedes with the departure of Hamilton, leaving Russell as team leader alongside rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli with all eyes on major rule changes coming in 2026.

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