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Number One in Formula One

• Anita Elberse

Toto Wolff, the team principal for Mercedes-AMG Petronas—arguably the most impressive team in F1 racing history—has led his organization to unparalleled success. Mercedes earned the Constructors’ Championship (for best overall team performance) every year from 2014 through 2021, and over that time frame it won nearly 70% of the Grand Prix races it competed in.

To understand what made that possible, Harvard Business School’s Anita Elberse spent time with the team in 2021, conducting interviews and watching what went on behind the scenes before, during, and after races. She found that Wolff shapes the culture at Mercedes to a remarkable degree. Elberse’s takeaway? What you say and do as a leader has a surprisingly powerful effect on the organization you run.

In this article, drawing on her observations of Wolff’s management style and practices, Elberse presents six lessons that can help any leader cultivate a winning team: (1) Set the highest standards for everyone; (2) put people front and center; (3) analyze mistakes continually—even when winning; (4) foster an open, no-blame culture; (5) trust superstars but maintain authority; and (6) relentlessly battle complacency.

Leadership lessons from Toto Wolff and Mercedes, the team behind one of the greatest winning streaks in all of sports

Idea in Brief

The question.

No team in recent Formula One racing history has had as much success as Mercedes-AMG Petronas. What lessons can organizations learn from the practices of its leader, Toto Wolff?

The Background

Mercedes and Wolff granted Anita Elberse, of Harvard Business School, special behind-the-scenes access, allowing her to observe them up close as they prepared for, competed in, and analyzed their performance in races.

The Takeaway

Using what she learned about Wolff’s management style, Elberse presents six leadership lessons that can help companies of all sorts develop a winning culture.

Formula One (F1) is the most prestigious motor-racing competition on the planet. Every season, from March to December, 10 F1 teams participate in races across the world. The 2022 season features 22 “Grand Prix” weekends on five continents. Each involves three days of events: practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, qualifying sessions or short-sprint qualifying races to determine starting positions later on Saturday, and the actual race on Sunday. Close to half a billion unique viewers tune in to F1’s television coverage throughout the season, and the action on the ground can attract as many as 400,000 live spectators.

• AE Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to teach at Harvard Business School

Toto Wolff is taking his F1 experience to Harvard Business School

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You can call Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff a lot of things.

Including Adjunct Professor.

Wolff and Mercedes announced on Tuesday that the team boss was appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School. Wolff will serve as a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse. Beginning in January the two will team up to teach a course titled “Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.”

The announcement follows Wolff’s previous experience with Professor Elberse. The Harvard professor followed Wolff and Mercedes during the 2021 season, gaining behind-the-scenes access to the operation of a Formula 1 team. The result of that access was a Harvard Business School case study titled ”Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team,” and Wolff appeared as a guest lecturer in March of 2022 alongside Elberse.

The pair then collaborated on an article for Harvard Business Review titled “Number One in Formula One,” where Professor Elberse distilled some of Wolff’s lessons on management. It began with this passage about Wolff and Mercedes:

While working on this project, I learned a great deal about the winning culture that characterizes the Mercedes team. In what follows, I have distilled my observations into six lessons for leaders hoping to cultivate their own winning teams, whether in sports or other realms. During my research I also came to understand how Wolff, with his mindset, values, and actions, shapes the culture at Mercedes. In fact, it was fascinating to discover how much his leadership traits map onto the culture he has fostered. There is a powerful message here for every leader—what you say and do comes to define the organization you lead—and so I aim, too, to highlight those connections.

Wolff had this to say about the course , which is aimed at first- and second-year MBA students. “I feel very honored and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, outlined Wolff in the announcement. “Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energized by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

The announcement comes as Mercedes is hoping to close the gap to Red Bull and, frankly, Aston Martin at the top of the F1 Constructors’ Standings. Mercedes came away with double points in last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the team was hoping for more after bringing some upgrades to Baku. “Today was not a thriller,” said Wolff following Sunday’s Grand Prix. “There was very little overtaking even with a big pace difference. We headed into a sub optimum set-up direction during FP1 and by the time we realised it was too late, and the car was in parc fermé conditions. It’s the same for everyone though under this format.”

“The pace in free air today looked similar between ourselves, the Ferraris and the Aston Martins,” he added. “It was hard to tell who was ultimately quicker though, because with the difficulty of overtaking you are stuck where you are stuck. The Red Bulls meanwhile sailed away into the sunset on merit. If we can get the platform right though, I think we can close that gap this year. It’s not about adding points of downforce, more giving the drivers a car that they have confidence in.”

If Mercedes can deliver on that challenge, Professor Wolff will have quite a story to teach this winter.

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Number One in Formula One

By: Anita Elberse

Toto Wolff, the team principal for Mercedes-AMG Petronas--arguably the most impressive team in F1 racing history--has led his organization to unparalleled success. Mercedes earned the Constructors'…

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• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2022
• Discipline: General Management
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Toto Wolff, the team principal for Mercedes-AMG Petronas--arguably the most impressive team in F1 racing history--has led his organization to unparalleled success. Mercedes earned the Constructors' Championship (for best overall team performance) every year from 2014 through 2021, and over that time frame it won nearly 70% of the Grand Prix races it competed in. To understand what made that possible, Harvard Business School's Anita Elberse spent time with the team in 2021, conducting interviews and watching what went on behind the scenes before, during, and after races. She found that Wolff shapes the culture at Mercedes to a remarkable degree. Elberse's takeaway? What you say and do as a leader has a surprisingly powerful effect on the organization you run. In this article, drawing on her observations of Wolff's management style and practices, Elberse presents six lessons that can help any leader cultivate a winning team: (1) Set the highest standards for everyone; (2) put people front and center; (3) analyze mistakes continually--even when winning; (4) foster an open, no-blame culture; (5) trust superstars but maintain authority; and (6) relentlessly battle complacency.

Nov 1, 2022

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General Management

Harvard Business Review Digital Article

R2206D-PDF-ENG

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Toto Wolff Makes a Pit Stop at HBS

On Wednesday, March 2, a crowd of Harvard students clusters around the newest Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One race car. Flown in from Luxembourg that morning, the silver and green race car, expected to be one of the fastest F1 cars this season, is parked outside the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

The library doors swing open. Harvard Way, bustling with excitement, falls silent. A figure almost as tall as the door, dressed in a navy blue trench coat, slowly emerges from the library. It’s the man of the hour — Torger “Toto” C. Wolff.

After an introduction from Professor Anita Elberse of HBS, Wolff — the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team’s Team Principal and CEO — faces the crowd of energized students and jokes, “I thought Harvard was a smart university, not a group of fans.”

The Mercedes F1 Team is the most successful F1 team in the world with eight consecutive world championship wins, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team. Wolff leads a team of 1,400 employees, including drivers Lewis C. D. Hamilton and George W. Russell.

In February of this year, Elberse, who teaches “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” at HBS, published a case study on Wolff’s team in which she analyzes the “secret to his and his team’s success.” She went to races in the past F1 season and interviewed people within the Mercedes organization, including the drivers.

“It’s really difficult to find a team that has won what is effectively a world championship eight times in a row,” Elberse says. “Usually complacency sets in, or some other factor makes it impossible for the team to perform at the highest level. We tend to see very short life cycles for teams, but [Wolff] has kept his team at the top for eight years now. I find that really fascinating.”

Elberse invited Wolff to be a guest in her lectures and teach the case study with her. Afterwards, they led a meet and greet with the broader Harvard community, giving students the opportunity to view the Mercedes Team’s newest F1 car and ask Wolff questions.

During the Q&A period, Wolff answered questions on a variety of subjects, from racial and gender diversity in F1 to rivalries within the sport to his leadership skills.

However, he reveals that he was not always the confident leader he is now. “I remember distinctly a moment in my 30s when I was a guest at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and I felt so shit because all these people were so successful and working in Formula One and I couldn’t imagine myself in that environment,” Wolff says. “I think we should speak about it. I think we should seek help.”

Wolff’s commitment to mental health awareness resonated with many students in the audience. Sean P.L. Finamore ’23, the Co-Founder and Vice President of the Harvard Undergraduate Automotive Society says, “I think that was particularly powerful for me, hearing him say that, and also being able to relate to a lot of those feelings.”

Hiromu R. Rose ’22, Co-Founder and President of HUAS, was surprised at how many people came to the meet-and-greet. “I was very excited about [the turnout] because it shows that we do have a lot of interest and traction for future events,” Rose says.

After almost 20 minutes of jumping around with my hand raised, I was chosen to ask Wolff one of the last questions of the day. In a 2019 interview with BBC, Wolff said “relentless curiosity” drives him to keep winning — how, I asked, does he maintain his curiosity?

“I try to be curious like a child every day,” Wolf answered.“Every day the world opens up in front of us. We just need to have open eyes and be curious about it.”

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Mercedes boss Wolff to teach at Havard Business School

Toto Harvard Visit - Paul Ripke

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has been appointed as an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Wolff will serve as a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse, where he will share insights on leadership, organisational culture, and personal effectiveness.

Elberse presented a Harvard Business School case study entitled ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One team’ after shadowing the team behind-the-scenes through 2021.

Wolff and Elberse will collaborate to deliver a short course for first- and second-year MBA students in January 2024 entitled ‘Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team’.

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“I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, said Wolff.

“Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energised by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”   “We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus,” said Elberse. “I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto’s leadership journey and from his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team. “With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow.”

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F1’s billionaire team boss Toto Wolff lands new Harvard Business School role

Toto Wolff wears a jumper around his neck in the paddock. Zandvoort September 2022.

Mercedes principal, and Harvard’s newest Executive Fellow Toto Wolff will look to shape the leaders of tomorrow when he teaches at Harvard Business School.

The Austrian investor has become one of the most recognisable figures anywhere in the world of Formula 1 as the team principal and one-third owner of the Mercedes squad.

Having started his F1 journey with the purchase of shares in Williams, Wolff went on to invest in a Mercedes team which re-wrote F1’s history books under Wolff with a string of eight Constructors’ titles in a row from 2014-2021, plus seven Drivers’ crowns in that time.

And with Formula 1’s popularity now at an all-time high, a surge largely originating from the success of Netflix’s hit docuseries Drive to Survive, it has helped bring a new level of value to the current 10 teams, with Wolff recently joining Forbes’ list of world billionaires for the first time.

Now, Wolff will look to use all of his experience to help the aspiring leaders of tomorrow, having been appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School, where he will also be a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse.

Leadership, organisational culture and personal effectiveness are the areas of expertise which it is anticipated Wolff will be able to offer great insight for the students, as from January 2024, Wolff works alongside Elberse to deliver the ‘Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team’ course to first and second-year MBA students.

The door between Mercedes F1 and Harvard is not a new one to open though, as prior to this professor Elberse has been behind-the-scenes at Mercedes analysing their operation at race weekends.

This ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team’ case study has since been taught, with Wolff’s involvement, to MBA students, while Wolff’s leadership philosophy also went into Elberse’s ‘Number One in Formula One’ Harvard Business Review article designed to help managers progress.

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“I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard,” said Wolff.

“Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energised by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

Wolff is also putting all of his leadership skills to use in the effort to return Mercedes to winning ways in the world of Formula 1.

F1 2023 has started with a W14 challenger which, like its predecessor, is not worthy of returning Mercedes to the title picture where they crave to be.

A new-look W14 is expected to arrive for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, as Mercedes head in a different direction in pursuit of runaway leaders Red Bull.

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Toto to Teach at Harvard

Toto Wolff, the Co-Owner, CEO and Team Principal of the Team, has been appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School where he will serve as guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse.

The role will see Toto share insights on high-performance leadership, organizational culture and personal effectiveness, gained in one of the world’s most competitive industries, with the School’s MBA students.

A former racing driver turned investor, Toto has become one of the most successful leaders in world sport, guiding the Mercedes team to eight Formula One Constructors’ Championships and seven Drivers’ Championships in his ten years at the helm. Toto's partnership with the Harvard Business School will further its mission of educating and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow.

Throughout the 2021 F1 season, Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse gained behind-the-scenes access to the Mercedes team to observe how they prepared for, competed in and analyzed their performance in races. The result was a Harvard Business School case study entitled ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team’ which Wolff has since helped teach to MBA students on campus.

The pair also collaborated on a popular Harvard Business Review article ‘Number One in Formula One’, in which Professor Elberse distilled Toto's leadership philosophy into six lessons to help managers develop a winning culture. In January 2024, Toto and Elberse will team up to deliver a groundbreaking short course for both first-year and second-year MBA students, “Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.”

“I feel very honored and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, noted Toto. “Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energized by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

"We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus,” said Elberse. “I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto’s leadership journey and from his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team. With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow.”

Harvard Business School’s Executive Fellows program aims to create a community of practitioners who, alongside their faculty partners, contribute to the School through a rich set of activities. “HBS is fortunate to be able to benefit from this dynamic partnership of Anita and Toto; I am confident it will be a spectacular experience for the students,” said Professor Len Schlesinger, Chair of the Practice Faculty.

Toto Wolff, one of Formula One's most successful principals and CEOs, shares his best leadership advice

• Under Toto Wolff's leadership, the Mercedes F1 Team has won eight Constructors' Championships.
• Mercedes' dominance was featured in a Harvard Business School case study about Wolff.
• Wolff believed that attention to detail, honesty, and humility were important leadership qualities.

Toto Wolff, the CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, is one of the most successful principals in motorsport history. 

He joined the team in 2013 — the same year as the star driver Lewis Hamilton — and has led Mercedes to eight Constructors' Championship titles and seven Drivers' Championship titles. He's also become one of the most recognizable faces in the sport thanks to the popular Netflix docuseries "Drive to Survive." 

In a recent interview with Insider, Wolff, who is known for his charisma and intensity, shared his best leadership advice for how to succeed in a competitive and high-stakes environment.

Don't dwell on past failures — or successes

Wolff said that focusing on the future, and not dwelling on the past, was key to Mercedes' success. 

He said he had no relics or mementos of the past in his "tidy and precise" Monaco home, save for one World Constructors' Championship trophy. Even then, Wolff added, he kept the prize turned in such a way that he saw only the empty emblem: a placeholder for the team that would win it all next year. 

"It's a way for me not to forget that the past has no relevance for how you perform tomorrow," he said. He added that the specter of defeat kept him motivated. "The personal humiliation and fear of losing is something that we truly want to avoid, and that's why we have been going every single year." 

Wolff also didn't want people to wallow in their errors. He wanted them to take responsibility for their performance. Trust was maintained through "brutal honesty," he said, and lying was the only thing that could earn someone a "red card" in the organization. 

"When they make a mistake, I want our people to know they don't need to lie in order to retain their jobs," Wolff said.

Sweat the details

The first time Wolff visited the Mercedes factory, he noticed something that disturbed him in the reception area: a crumpled, week-old Daily Mail and two used paper cups. What's more, there was no F1 signage to be found.

After his meeting with the team principal, Wolff was blunt: The place needed improvement. But the principal balked and said, "It's the engineering that makes us win." Wolff replied, "No, it's the attitude. It all starts with an attention to detail."

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That anecdote, recounted in a new Harvard Business School case study , illustrated Wolff's punctilious approach: Sweating the small stuff, behind the scenes, makes all the difference when milliseconds are on the line.

Still, Wolff told Insider, he was careful not to bring this same level of conscientiousness to his personal life. "If you come home and start to annoy everyone with your preciseness and tidiness, that can become a little bit of a curse," he said. "You've got to let go."

Live and let live

In the past, Wolff was criticized for allowing Hamilton to leave the team between races to focus on his other passions, whether that was walking the catwalk for a new fashion line or recording music in Japan.

But Wolff said Hamilton was mentally stronger on the weekend if he had an opportunity to detach from work during the week.

"I don't like to put people in boxes," Wolff said. "In the past, it was the case that racing drivers should have to train a lot, have the right nutrition, sleep enough, and work a lot with nothing else around. Lewis is very different. He's actually able to reenergize when taking his mind into other things."

In recent years, work-life balance has become an even more important factor than pay to many employees in various industries. The No. 1 reason people wanted to leave their job was for better work-life balance, a FlexJobs survey found. 

After facing a bout of burnout in 2020, Wolff said he had come to understand the importance of this balance. Compared with 2020, he said he was taking better care of himself, managing stress, and better organizing his downtime.

"I've learned that it's my schedule and timetable and not somebody else's," he said. "I'm not picking up the phone with people that I consider time thieves or energy suckers."

Manage egos with care

But Wolff's job isn't just about leading individual drivers. He's had to learn to manage the team's two drivers, who race for the team and for individual victory, as a cohesive unit. 

For example, at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes' drivers, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, collided mere seconds into the race because they were vying for first place.

After the race, Wolff made both drivers stand in front of the engineers as he threatened to pull them out of future races, the Harvard case study said. He told them, "The next time when you want to drive each other off the road, you think about all the faces here, and then you will think twice."

"I've seen successful people that haven't been able to look in the mirror in the evening and say to themselves, 'I've been a bit of a fool today,'" Wolff said. "If you think you are the real deal and you start to have a sense of entitlement, this is the beginning of the end."

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