The Head of Mercedes’s F1 Team Believes in the Power of Negative Thinking

The motor-sport executive Toto Wolff served as a producer on ‘F1 The Movie.’

Toto Wolff’s weekends aren’t exactly relaxing. Wolff, 53, is the CEO, co-owner and team principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, which means he spends his Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at races across the globe.

Wolff took over Mercedes’s F1 operation in 2013 and quickly got used to winning. With Lewis Hamilton piloting one of the team’s two cars, Mercedes won eight straight team championships.

These days Hamilton drives for Ferrari but remains a close friend of Wolff’s. Both served as producers on this summer’s racing blockbuster “F1 The Movie,” which sends Brad Pitt hurtling around real-world race tracks.

By Tuesday, Wolff is back at headquarters in Brackley, some 70 miles northwest of London, preparing for the coming weekend’s race. But Mondays are spent at home in Monaco with his wife, F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff, and their 8-year-old son. (His two adult children from a previous marriage live in the U.S.) Below, he discusses optimizing his wardrobe, his globe-trotting schedule and giving Hamilton a ride on the Mercedes plane.

Do you have a standard postrace Monday routine?

I’m usually flying back to Monaco, where we live. I bring the little one to school, and then in our apartment building, there’s a coffee shop called Cova, which is a famous Milanese old-style, traditional coffee shop. They have the best cappuccino, so this is where I sit. I have two half-cappuccinos—cappuccini—because I like to drink two cappuccinos, but two would be too much coffee. And if I’m being very indulgent, I’m eating something called veneziana, which is like brown brioche with lots of sugar on it. I’m doing a few phone calls, reading my emails, reading the news.

What comes after your cappuccini?

I go back to the apartment for a debrief about the race weekend, for 30 or 40 minutes. Every head of department will report about their area, and then I usually have the last word, summarizing how I saw the weekend.

Unfortunately, the way we are driven is that the happiness of a race victory lasts until the next morning. But by then you start to think about the next racing weekend. What are we doing? Why did we win? Most people come back and say, Why did we lose? But you have to also ask yourself the question, Why did we win? Because then it gives you more direction. We are glass half-empty, not half-full. Miserable life, but that’s what we do.

Toto Wolff is the CEO, co-owner and team principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team.

Do you have any sort of grooming routine?

I shower, shave—wet in the shower, and then machine to make sure there’s nothing else left. Then I’m doing vitamin C serum, moisturizing cream and sunscreen. Then salt spray in the hair, then hair dryer.

Can you tell me about the necessity of routine in your line of work?

I want to limit the amount of decision-making in the morning, because mornings for me are also a creative phase. Where are [people] the most creative? Driving cars, in the shower, on the toilet. Because there is a program that is running, but we are doing it in autopilot mode. That’s why I double shave! That kind of routine becomes even more important when I’m at the races.

I try to have all of the same clothes, too, so I have sets: I have blue chinos and beige chinos, I have white shirts and blue shirts, I have blue jackets and beige jackets, and I have blue shoes and brown shoes. The shoes are all [loafers], just different colors. The chinos are either cut a bit wider for the winter or a bit slimmer so I can wear them without socks in the summer. The shirts and jackets are all from the same Viennese tailor, who is 90. With the tailor, we’ve come up with a concept for how the collar needs to be, and also how many centimeters you put between the buttons, because I like to have it a little bit more open. You don’t want to run around like an Italian gigolo, but you also don’t want to look like a German corporate. It’s called sprezzatura, you know?

I’ve read you try not to have meetings before 10 in the morning or so.

If I’m not very disciplined, I will stay up until 2 a.m. My usual bedtime is 1. I sleep until 8. Then I read, then I’m having my creative phase.

What does creativity look like or mean in the context of running a Formula One team?

It means being able to reflect. Because we spend our life being busy: We have meetings, we respond to communications, we have our calls. We have the analogy of being on the dance floor and on the balcony. My role on the weekend is being on the dance floor: I’m actively involved in what’s happening. But then in my role as a CEO, I need to also step onto the balcony and look at what’s going on on the dance floor down there.

Toto Wolff with his wife, F1 Academy director Susie Wolff, and their son.

You’re a producer of “F1 The Movie,” and you appear in the film. What was that experience like for you?

It was interesting, being part of the conversations with Brad [Pitt] or with Javier Bardem, and [director] Joe Kosinski and [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer. At the end I have this little cameo. They say it’s great, but I think they’re lying to me. It makes me cringe. It was in Abu Dhabi after the race. There was no hair and makeup.

They were like, Let’s do this now. They were a bit annoyed with me because I think I did the scene five times. I wanted it to be good—not that the outcome actually was good.

You worked so closely with Lewis Hamilton for so long. What have you learned about him or about your time together this year, now that you’re not working together?

When he decided to go, it could have been very awkward, borderline hostile, and we actively talked about how to not make it that. All of us made a real effort in trying to be very accommodating, very understanding.

He’s maintained being a friend. He pops up in the office on the weekend! He speaks with the engineers, gets some food. After many Grand Prix, he travels back with me. So we have the old gang: Valtteri Bottas, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and me flying from the races.

Toto Wolff and driver Lewis Hamilton remained close friends after the driver left Mercedes for Ferrari.

Is that unusual in racing?

It’s very unusual in any kind of relationship. But I tried to be very open and, and say, Listen, on the racetrack, we want to beat you. No doubt about that. But it’s been 12 years that we have been in this relationship. We trust each other. I’m living a different life through his eyes—you know, he shows me his flirts and who he dates, and [asks], Should I go for this girl or not? And I’m saying, Yes, you should, and tell me how it was!

Do you collect anything?

I collect racing cars. I have a collection of 20 Formula One cars—Mercedes cars that have been part of our history. One goes in the Mercedes museum, one goes into my shed.

What’s the last thing you bought and loved?

I loved buying the Mercedes supercar, the AMG One, which is very limited—275 cars, Formula One engine. Other people put it in a garage. I drive these things.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.