Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

Even after travelling to almost every grand prix this year, the so-called 'Dutch' media session with Toto Wolff remains one of the highlights of the Formula 1 season. The Mercedes team principal obviously does not speak Dutch – well, perhaps the words Lando Norris recently uttered on television, but let's not repeat those here! – but these are sessions with a handful of Dutch journalists.

Over the past few years, it has become something of a tradition and a well-known fixture in the media centre, as it has often produced interesting comments. The 2025 edition was the best example, when the first question concerned AI-generated pictures of Max Verstappen and Wolff, and the latter responded, laughing: “Those pictures are one thing, but did you guys know there are also deepfake 18+ videos with my face?” It set the tone for a session that lasted 50 minutes instead of 15, after which Wolff concluded as he got up: “Well, that was fun!”

It was a sentiment that was naturally shared by everyone present. Beyond all the jokes and laughter, the state of Mercedes and the prospects under the new regulations were also discussed. A day before the session with Wolff, we had spoken to George Russell, who indicated that he had a great deal of confidence in the Mercedes power unit for 2026. When I put those words to Wolff, he first called out to Russell, who happened to be eating his dinner in the same room: “George! Did you really say that? Well, thank you for that…”

On a more serious note, Wolff acknowledged that the works team could have an advantage, but warned that the chassis needed to be up to scratch as well: “I think it's an advantage to a certain degree, because you can dictate the direction of how you want the whole layout to be done. But if your chassis is still underperforming because you're not generating the same amount of downforce, you're creating too much drag or you have missed some loopholes, then you're going to be behind. And that's what makes the sport so interesting now. You can't crush anyone with money anymore, which was always a get out of jail card for the big three teams. But now we're all capped.”

That caution was also related to something Wolff openly admitted that day: Mercedes had never really managed to get things right during the ground-effect era, and that took some getting used to for a team that had largely dominated the previous regulatory cycle. It is precisely that experience which gives the world titles Mercedes has now secured added significance. According to Wolff, Mercedes is back where it belongs, and after those difficult years, that success tastes all the sweeter.

Although Wolff was right in what he said last year, and the W17's chassis has indeed proved competitive, the advantage enjoyed by works teams in 2026 may have been even greater than we could have anticipated that evening. My question at the time was mainly about packaging – an old-school way in which a works team enjoys an advantage – but in 2026 that applied more than ever before to the exploitation of the power unit as well, mostly because the current rules are so complex.

Mercedes clinched its first constructors' title since 2021 in Brazil last weekend

Photo by: Hector Vivas / Formula 1 via Getty Images

And that is another area in which Mercedes has done its homework well. While McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that 2026 was the first time he had experienced a disadvantage from being a customer team, he immediately added that he was not pointing the finger at Mercedes. The works team was simply one step ahead – certainly in the early stages of the season – even with simple tricks such as lifting off before the line to circumvent the usual rampdown rate.

All of this means that the power unit advantage Wolff had hoped for in Zandvoort was certainly there during the opening months of the 2026 season, while the chassis proved more than good enough to exploit that advantage. In fact, exactly as Toto had hoped in the Dutch dunes.

How Wolff tries to get the maximum out of different F1 drivers

Nevertheless, there are a few other aspects worth highlighting beyond the technical story alone, such as managing the drivers. That was another subject discussed in Zandvoort, although this time during this year's edition, which Wolff jokingly opened with the words: “Why are we still doing this? Why are we still inviting these guys?”

“What kind of framework do we need to provide to extract the best performance of the driver, and part of that is obviously the well-being. And that is something that I am very keen on as well. I have never put drivers in a box and have never said this is how you need to be" Toto Wolff

But once again, an interesting conversation followed, for example about what it takes as a team principal to get the maximum out of different types of drivers. Wolff explained that he always tailors his approach to the individual – even though Mercedes has certain core values – and that is precisely what has paid dividends again in 2026.

The rough diamond that Antonelli already was has been polished, and Mercedes deserves praise for that, both for the way it has guided him internally and for how it protected him publicly when things were extremely tough at times in 2025. When I asked Wolff about Antonelli's rise, he acknowledged that it was one of the biggest surprises of his F1 career, but also that, with the benefit of hindsight, he could explain it: “When I analyse it and ask myself what are the reasons that he had such a good reputation in the junior formulas and karting, I think it's his processing power. I think he just needed the winter to process it. Why was it good? Why was it bad? What do I need to do?’.

“Last year he was parachuted into Formula 1, this year he came back into an environment that he already knew. He knew that flying to Melbourne would look that way. He knew the hotel. He knew the set-up. He came to the track, and everything was as last year. And that means that it just came down to driving and preparation, rather than being a deer in front of the headlights. But yeah, it's still one of the very nice surprises.”

Antonelli became F1's youngest ever world champion in 2026

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Although the outcome is surprising, Wolff in a way knew what Kimi needed. Just as he knew what it took to get the maximum out of Lewis Hamilton, which was very different from the current situation with Kimi – also because they were at different stages of their careers. In Zandvoort, Wolff shared the now-famous story about Hamilton attending fashion shows ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix and arriving late, only to repay Wolff with that memorable pole lap in 2018.

All of this leads to one of the insights Wolff shared about his own work as a team principal: “What kind of framework do we need to provide to extract the best performance of the driver, and part of that is obviously the well-being. And that is something that I am very keen on as well. I have never put drivers in a box and have never said this is how you need to be.”

It is not only important for an F1 team principal to get the maximum out of his drivers, but could even be described as a life lesson. During that particular media session, it prompted Wolff to share the following thoughts, a passage from the transcript that is simply too good not to share in its entirety:

“I think when a great driver joins a great team, then the dynamics need to work, really. And they can only work when you are completely transparent and open, and you're able to listen to every argument. I would never be afraid of working with a driver that's been in another structure for a long time or that is being perceived as difficult. When you listen to what people said about Lewis, he was probably the most difficult ones, or Alonso, saying that he's difficult, but that doesn't play a role in my mind. Because coming to the team, you work with each other, you shape each other for the best of the project.

“Tough love is a word that I often use. As long as our objectives are the same, and that's winning races and championships, you can be tough with each other. The love part is the joint objective. And we have it in the team. We're able to sit on a table with my colleagues and we're allowed to disagree. I have a different opinion, okay, why? Tell me what is yours. And have that tough love part. And rather than approach it with combat, my reaction is not to justify why I was right, but I'm trying to approach it with curiosity. Why does he think, why does that manager, why does this driver think B was right, when I think it's A?

“And only if I can make his standpoint better than him, I allow myself to have an opinion on it. That's important for interactions with people. If you have no fool, idiot, or liar on the other side of the table, every one of us should make that exercise.”

And that is not only an approach that lies behind the many successes Wolff has achieved as an F1 team principal, but one that, as he says, also applies to society more broadly. If everyone thought that way, the world would certainly be a much nicer and friendlier place...

Wolff has led Mercedes to nine constructors' titles

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