Wolff subscribes to All Blacks’ ‘no d***heads policy’ at Mercedes 

Wolff has led Mercedes’ F1 operation since 2013, overseeing their streak of world championship successes between 2014 and 2021, as well as their recent struggles since a major rules shake-up in 2022. 

Mercedes won seven consecutive drivers’ world championships between 2014 and 2020 and also amassed an unprecedented eight consecutive constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021. 

Explaining his approach to recruiting the best minds in F1, Wolff says he operates with a similar policy to the concept attributed to the All Blacks set-up. 

“Sometimes the best ones are the most complex ones,” Wolff told Nasser Hussain as part of a new Sky Sports documentary called Secrets of Success.

“I think it’s just acknowledging that we’re all different. It is my duty to create an environment which makes everybody thrive. 

"You can be complex, you can be fussy. We tolerate edgy people, that’s fine. We want to have the best ones and as I said before, they are complex.

“But the fallback would always be the All Blacks’ policy, no d***heads. If you lack the basic values of integrity, loyalty and truthfulness, then you shouldn’t be here.”

Wolff is currently negotiating the terms of a contract extension with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose current Mercedes deal expires at the end of the year. 

Wolff recalled the time he believes he and Hamilton proved the doubters wrong following criticism of his star driver’s behaviour at Mercedes.

"Lewis is a friend of mine and his drive to be creative and successful in the fashion industry is something I permitted from the beginning,” Wolff said. 

"Because we have that pact, he performs. On that particular week I remember we were sitting with the engineers and he was FaceTiming me. He was saying: 'Can you believe that I'm on the catwalk in Shanghai launching my own collection? Thank you for letting me do this’.

"I saw the happiness in his face and I knew that when he's going to come to Singapore he's going to be on it because he's in a good space. He came late and then I had a press conference and all the journalists were all over me saying it's not professional to miss the first meetings. I just smiled.

"In qualifying he put in a lap that was unseen. On Sunday he took the lead and disappeared into the distance and was never seen. That is the moment when people stop telling me and telling him what to do."