Toto Wolff showed Mercedes employee how to clean TOILET

Toto Wolff

Wolff showed Mercedes employee how to clean TOILET

The Mercedes boss recounted a bizarre story from his early years at the team

Chris Deeley

Wednesday 12 April 2023 18:00

Toto Wolff has been fostering an atmosphere of high performance at Mercedes since he joined the team in 2013, but some people don't know just how far he's gone to ensure everything is exactly as he wants it.

When he arrived at the team, Wolff was horrified that the toilets in their race hospitality area were dirty – and not only did he hire someone to made sure it never happened again, but he met up with the new 'hygiene manager' and physically showed him how he wanted the toilets to be cleaned.

The Mercedes chief became a billionaire this month, and it's this attention to detail which has helped him achieve such overwhelming success. Wolff told the story at Harvard Business School last year, and it was brought to light in a recent post on the Huddle Up newsletter.

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"The first time I went to the bathroom [at the hospitality area during a race] it was dirty," he said. "And I thought, ‘That cannot be. This is our home on a race weekend and where our sponsors come with their families.'"

Every little helps

"So we hired a full-time hygiene manager, Miguel, who travels with us now. I physically showed him how I wanted him to clean the toilet, how to put the brush back, how to wipe the floor, how to put the soap bottles with the front facing forwards, how to sanitise the handle, and so on.

"And I walked him through what I wanted his schedule for the week to be, and how on Sundays, when it is busy, I want him to sit right next to the bathroom and make sure it was spotless after every guest."

Wolff has admitted that he had intended to leave the sport by his 50th birthday, which would have seen him quit at the end of the 2021 season. As he said recently, his mind has very much changed on that.

"Yes, this is what I do and this is my company. The 'problem' is that I can't leave, I've thought of other scenarios, even the possibility of moving to Thailand, of changing my activities, basically of changing my life."