Why Mercedes won’t leap into choosing a Wolff successor

Knowing when to move on from a position of power is a principle precious few people who hold such stations have grasped throughout history. At the time of writing, one Donald J Trump is making a conspicuous pig's ear of it. Knowing how to manage an orderly transfer of this authority to one's anointed successor represents another order of difficulty - after all, Henry VIII motored through six wives trying to produce a male heir.

Mercedes F1 team principal and shareholder Toto Wolff has made no secret of the fact that the rigours of his job have exacted a toll he is no longer willing to pay, and that he covets a less hands-on role. How much less hands-on is unknown - except, perhaps, to Wolff - as is the identity of who might succeed him.

The parent company has signed off on an arrangement whereby, in Wolff's words, his successor "will take time to train and go alongside me, and with Daimler we've decided I could take another role, being chief executive officer or executive chairman, and then decide how many races I do or whether I enjoy watching and giving stupid advice from the sofa".

While there are still those who believe Mercedes' recent dominance has been easy, stepping into the shoes of the most successful team principal in the history of the world championship is not a task to be undertaken lightly. When Wolff availed himself of a weekend off at the Brazilian GP last year, the championships already being securely in the bag, Mercedes tumbled abruptly off its perch. Technical director James Allison, Wolff's locum, described the experience as "miserable".

No, orchestrating excellence at the level of detail Wolff immerses himself in is far from easy. Mastering this is just one facet of the challenge that awaits, since Wolff will still be around, and having someone so competitive and detail-minded remain in the senior management orbit might prove hard for the new team principal. Martin Whitmarsh spent nearly 20 years being groomed as the successor to Ron Dennis at McLaren, and enjoyed but a handful of seasons in the job before being ousted - by Dennis.

It will be fascinating to learn who considers themselves suitable to run Wolff's shop on his behalf. GP Racing recalls an occasion some years ago in which a highly regarded team principal left for pastures new, and who should confidently approach the owner and declare themselves the man for the job but the outfit's media attache? Rebuffed, and not a little miffed, this individual departed under a cloud some months later.

Nearly eight years down the line and with a lot more silverware in the trophy cupboard, this is now a plum job - but who would want to do it, even if they could?

It is perhaps ironic that Wolff took over the Mercedes machine from Ross Brawn, a manager rightly carrying great repute for overseeing Ferrari's technical renaissance in the Michael Schumacher era and then leaving an orderly ship when he went on sabbatical at the end of 2006.

At Mercedes, though, Brawn's departure was less voluntary as the Daimler board grew impatient for a return on their (increasing) investment. That return would come - and how - in 2014 and thereafter, but by then Brawn had been elbowed out by the recently arrived Wolff and Niki Lauda.

Initially drafted in as shareholders with faintly nebulous job titles, Wolff and Lauda soon made their mandate clear - Mercedes had lost faith in Brawn and, as is so often the case when a project is deemed to be failing, some benighted soul's head had to be served up on a silver platter.

In 2013 GP Racing interviewed Brawn and Wolff in the swanky environs of the Bahrain Sofitel, Brawn arriving dressed Euro-casual with a cashmere jumper draped over his shoulders, Wolff rocking the lowline socks and loafers which were all the rage back then.

As they arranged themselves on a crushed velvet sofa for photographs - and indeed, throughout the interview - the palpable frisson between the two interviewees amply communicated that each regarded the other as a pustulent boil on their very existence. By all accounts the atmosphere was akin to that between two elderly volunteers in a charity shop who have long since tired of each other's society.

Nearly eight years down the line and with a lot more silverware in the trophy cupboard, this is now a plum job - but who would want to do it, even if they could?