Ownership gives Wolff room to run Mercedes entrepreneurially

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 38:00

   I think people know what you think without tweeting. Do you get to manage the team in a different way? Because, I don't know, you're less worried about job security, you can take bigger swings or just... How is Toto managing the team different from all the other F1 team principals managing the team? I have had this opportunity, the immense opportunity given to me by the board of management of Daimler back in the day, led by Dieter Zetsche, the CEO.

2. 38:24

   But actually, all of the board members were very supportive of the idea. So what happened is they bought a small team, Brown, that won the championship in 2009, expecting it to be a dominant force in Formula One. And it was the first Mercedes Grand Prix-owned team with its own engines and its own chassis. And it underperformed. year after year the results were really not satisfactory and until 2013 they won a single race only yeah and i was at the time running williams with the founder and we also won a race so one of the board members approached me and invited me to stuttgart and he said how can it be that your private little team can win a race and we mercedes we can't do any better than that so i said i don't know so they they gave me the opportunity to look at their you know setup their

3. 39:17

   numbers and everything and i came back and said what is your aspiration and they said well winning world championships because we bought the team that did that and i said okay then one of us is wrong because i'm working on the same budgets and i'm thinking about finishing in the top six and i said no no no no it's not the same budget look at we spend 100 million more and i said yeah And those 100 millions you spend on Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

4. 39:40

   I have a pay driver from Venezuela who won the race, by the way. That's the main difference. So they didn't like that situation at all. And so I'm just a messenger, you know, don't. And I'm going to go back to Williams. So eventually they came back and said, we think our model, corporate running. I think a Formula One team doesn't function because it needs to be much more entrepreneurially led. You need to be empowered to take decisions on the spot and we want you to run this.

5. 40:12

   And I said, I need to pinch myself because, you know, being the head of Mercedes Motorsport is probably one of the best jobs in the industry, other than being Ferrari, the Ferrari guy. And I had to say no because I was a shareholder at Williams and I have been always an entrepreneur. And they said, funny that you say that, because we've just bought 40% of the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund. We bought it back.

6. 40:34

   You can buy that. And I said, I did well in my life, but I won't be able to afford it. But they helped you finance it, right? Exactly. They said, how much can you afford? Yes. And I said, I'm always, you know, on the, let's say, conservative side. I've gone through financial hardship, and I don't want to end up there. How much are you prepared to put into this? And I said, well, that's the amount.

7. 40:53

   They said, okay, we're going to finance, help you finance the rest. and here I was and until today with the change of management now led by Ole Kalenius and his colleagues the CEO of Mercedes they you know they give me a framework that I can act in the best interest of the racing team outside of the corporate structure and I couldn't wish for a better co-shareholder partner and brand mighty brand that I'm associated with So the decisions that we make are quick.

8. 41:29

   They are in the best interest of the team whilst thinking about the consequences for the brand. And I run it like a 20-people organization. And how is how you run it different from just hires team principles, how they run teams? Every team is different. But for example, when you look at Ferrari, the team principle is one of 10 direct reports to the CEO. So the marketing person in the racing team It's going to be on the same level that a team principal.

9. 41:56

   Then you have other, you know, very much shareholder-led organizations like Red Bull, where you would have an employed team principal that's reporting to a group of shareholders. Then you have a strictly corporate structure, like Audi, where you have people from the group and from Formula One are being hired to run the team. They have a salary, they might have a bonus. So that kind of long leash that I was given, today there's no leash because we are partners, but the ability of taking decisions that was given to me was extraordinary because all of these people, they need to fundamentally report to someone.

10. 42:36

    And there's always the risk that if you take a decision without having actually escalated it through the hierarchy, you might be exposed and lose your job. So where I am until I really badly screw up, I'm responsible for my decisions and I'm very clear about that, but I can't be fired.