Wolff: It took two of us to replace Brawn

Wolff isn't good enough to be the single point of reference at Mercedes

Wolff played an instrumental role in overhauling the running of the Mercedes operation, with previous team principal Ross Brawn being replaced by a joint-management structure.

He is in charge of commercial and sporting matters, while Paddy Lowe takes control of more technical matters.

Wolff believes that the system is much better adapted to the expanded demands placed on teams nowadays.

"We will not repeat the mistakes of the past," Wolff told AUTOSPORT.

"The structure should not at all be diluted by what we have defined before as a team principal role. I have a very strong opinion on that.
"By giving someone a mega technical role to then represent the company, and interact with key stakeholders – like the FIA, FOM, big sponsors, and the Daimler board – you dilute his effort.

"One of the key things is to place people in roles depending on their skills and competence – and make sure they stay in their field of competence.

"You can develop people but that is very dangerous – just look at the Peter Principle. A technical director being promoted to a team principal is not necessarily right.

"Today's F1 teams are not the organizations they were 10 or even five years ago.

"You need to place the people where they perform best and then give them everything they need to perform best."

Wolff's view on splitting the management roles to ensure that everyone is focusing on areas where they are strong was essential for Mercedes to make a step forward.

He also thinks it allowed the team to not get unsettled when Brawn decided to step down at the end of last season.

"The transition was pretty seamless," explained Wolff. "For Ross it was difficult to accept that the role is changing, because he only came back to F1 to be the single point of reference, as he called it.

"But in a team of 800 staff, with 400 in Brixworth, there isn't a single point of reference anymore.

"Yes, there is responsibility to one individual at the end, but everyone needs to work in their field of competence.

"And Paddy was always made clear from the beginning that this is how we want to position it and this happened without any problems." Yahoo Eurosport UK