Is Wolff the right man to bring Mercedes back to the top?

Toto Wolff has extended his contract at Mercedes by three years. Winning is Wolff's main goal, which he needs to start doing again. It is now up to him to prove that he can actually take a team to the top.

Wolff made the switch from Williams to Mercedes in 2013. The biggest change Wolff made was making more budget available. Mercedes were operating at a financial level of Williams but had the expectation of becoming world champions. Under Wolff's leadership, more investment was made, and the first world title followed in 2014.

How Wolff became world champion with Mercedes

Yet that world title cannot be entirely credited to Wolff and Niki Lauda. Although they were at the helm as owners and managers when the world title was won in 2014, the foundation for this success was laid by Ross Brawn. However, as the team's former owner (BrawnGP), things clashed with the new leaders. Two captains on the ship did not prove to be a success, so Brawn decided to leave at the end of 2013.

In his book Total Competition, Brawn describes that he himself then knew very well what he was leaving behind. After all, Mercedes had invested heavily in the engine and saw that the competition was lagging behind. In 2014, Wolff and consorts could take advantage of that, while Brawn watched from the sidelines as 'his team' won race after race.

What makes Wolff so good as Mercedes team boss

Still, it is too easy to attribute Mercedes' eight world titles to this foundation. Never before has an F1 team won so many titles in a row. That is an achievement that can, however, be credited to Wolff. He challenged a team that dominated F1 so much to come up with something new every year. Until 2021, that was very successful.

So, Wolff was able to continue to be successful. Keeping feet on the ground, staying critical, and constantly looking for better. Mercedes had an advantage in the early years because of the engine and could have sat back. However, the team boss managed to keep the team sharp so that every season, they came up with something new that made the competition fall behind.

In 2022, the team missed the mark for the first time with the car concept, and had to chase. This was a new reality for Wolff, who only failed to become the world champion in the constructors with Mercedes in 2013. This new phase will see whether Toto Wolff also masters that aspect of a team boss: can he actually lead a team to the top?

What Wolff still has to learn as team boss

2022 and 2023 showed that Wolff still has something to learn there. Wolff was very critical of his own team and regularly attacked technicians. Several times Wolff could be heard in interviews or even over the team radio complaining about the car. How will this arrive at the factory, where about a thousand people work on that car?

Internally, things were also rumbling on the technical front. Chief Technical Officer James Allison and Technical Director Mike Elliott switched positions. That swap eventually resulted in Mike Elliott's departure. With James Allison at the helm, there should be calm again, and the focus should be on the future, but do the team understand their own car?

As Wolff himself has pointed out, as a shareholder of Mercedes, his only interest is to be successful as a team boss. He will now have to prove that to himself and the other shareholders (INEOS and Mercedes-Benz). That starts in 2024. Can Mercedes close the gap to Red Bull Racing, or will they be overtaken by customer team McLaren? The latter seemed to be the case at the end of 2023.