How Prost shaped the way Wolff manages Mercedes F1 drivers

Toto Wolff has revealed how a conversation with Formula 1 legend Alain Prost inspired how the Mercedes boss has dealt with drivers through the years.

The four-time world champion had an iconic rivalry with Ayrton Senna, who fought Prost for the F1 title in 1988 and 1989 when the pair were team-mates at the dominant McLaren outfit. 

They both won a title each during that period while having several high-profile clashes, Suzuka 1989 for example, and it led to Prost joining Ferrari due to how toxic the relationship became.

Wolff once managed a similar team-mate rivalry, as childhood friends Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg bitterly fought for the championship from 2014 to 2016 amid an unprecedented run of eight consecutive constructors’ titles for Mercedes. 

Hamilton and Rosberg also had many spats, like Barcelona 2016, and an old pre-race conversation once shaped how Wolff opted to manage team-mate battles like that. 

“What I’m trying to transcend in the team is transparency,” said Wolff, who became Mercedes F1 boss in 2013. “When I started in Mercedes, I ran into Alain Prost, who I didn’t know back in the day.

“It was a five-minute conversation on the grid and I said to him, ‘what went wrong with Senna and you?’

“He said, ‘nothing went wrong between the two of us. What went wrong is that the team management played us against each other – we never knew where we were. One weekend you were the flavour of the month, the next month you didn’t know whether you had a seat and we never got the information’. 

“That kind of grew bigger, you become more paranoid, you close up. Eventually that leads to an implosion of the relationships between the drivers and with the team and how I’ve seen it is that I never wanted to fall foul of the same mistake.”

Wolff was further inspired by the late Niki Lauda, as the former Mercedes non-executive chairman once told him “we’re not bullshitting, we’re straightforward – things are like they are”.

That has been the case with all Mercedes drivers, whether it is Hamilton, Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas or current racer George Russell after recent speculation that the Silver Arrows was trying to sign Max Verstappen for 2026.

“It is with George and it was with Lewis the same way before and with Valtteri, I’m always transparent,” said Wolff.

Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Toto Wolff, Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director

Photo by: Daimler AG

“Borderline, you could see it as naivety because someone that I value as a family member, as a team member, as an ally, as a part of the tribe, I will always be brutally honest. 

“Not everybody can cope with it. George can. Lewis could also. But that’s why our conversations have been very open.

“George was the first one that I called and said, ‘listen, I need to entertain this conversation. It’s my duty as a team boss just so you’re not caught out’ and I think that’s important.”

Wolff recalled the fallout of Rosberg’s sudden retirement just five days after clinching the 2016 title, where he and Hamilton gathered for a brutally honest conversation after a fractious year.

It had seen Hamilton defy team orders just weeks prior at the Abu Dhabi season finale, after the race leader had deliberately backed second-placed Rosberg into the cars behind hoping they’d overtake.

Ultimately, they didn’t and Hamilton’s relationship with Mercedes was sour, before the off-season chat recovered things leading to him claiming his fourth of seven titles in 2017. 

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, leads Nico Rosberg, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, and Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB12

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“It was a tough time with Lewis,” said Wolff. “We had a really, really tough time around the [FIA] prizegiving, when Nico announced it, and also in the weeks afterwards.

“That’s when I said, ‘listen, we’ve got to sit down because if we are not talking to each other, then where is this going?’

“And I’d like you to be in the team for a long time. You’re the best driver. If you think we’re the best team, then we need to just sit down and agree to disagree or put all those points out.

“What we’ve really learned, the both of us together, is that you need to communicate because on many things, we share objectives and there will be situations where we don’t, but at least we know.

“That was a really good talk and shutting down is not the right way to do it. You need to have the conversation, even if it’s difficult and I’ve had it ever since.”