F1 boss Toto Wolff admits taking charge of cleaning toilets at Mercedes

Toto Wolff looks on anxiously at a toilet being cleaned in a composite picture — Photo: © IMAGO

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Toto Wolff admits taking charge of cleaning toilets at Mercedes

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it

Chris Deeley

Friday 31 October 2025 13:57

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has explained why he took it upon himself to show members of his F1 team's staff how to clean a toilet to his satisfaction.

The Austrian team principal is know for his exacting eye for detail, and spoke to Joe Pompliano at the recent Motorsport conference in New York about how that eye for detail has sometimes manifested in getting his hands dirty.

He talked about the way he explained exactly what he wanted from his 'hygiene team', including 'how he wanted them to use the brush', telling them that he wanted them cleaning the toilets 'like a ghost' after every single visitor on race days.

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This isn't actually the first time Wolff has talked about his endeavours to scrub up Mercedes' toilets, having previously told a similar story in a talk at the Harvard Business School in 2022, which suggests that the anecdote may for some reason be a favourite of his.

Wolff: Toilet cleaning is vital

Wolff explained: ”You have a hospitality at the centre of the paddock, you only get to go into this hospitality if you're someone really, really important for the team, your sponsor, your husband or wife of a sponsor, you're being invited.

“And so people expect this to be Formula 1. So you expect to have a restaurant, Michelin-like meal, because you're in Formula 1. And I don't want to have anyone experience going to the toilet and it's dirty.

”It was difficult to bring that message across until one day we hired a hygiene manager, and we had a whole team, and I said to them, 'ok, I'm gonna explain to you how that goes, because it's important'.

"And I showed them how I wanted the toilet to be cleaned, and how I wanted how to use the brush, not having crap on the brush when you put it back, and then how you clean the sink and put all the towels back in there.

“And then I said, on free practice day, I want you to be in there every 15 minutes and clean it. On the Saturday, every five minutes. And on the Sunday, after every single person that goes on the toilet, you go in there like a, you know, ghost. You're out there after 30 seconds, and it needs to be immaculate for every single guest.”

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