Why Toto Wolff almost quit as Mercedes team boss in 2020

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Although Toto Wolff is still relatively young at 53, he is by far the longest-serving team principal in Formula 1 since Christian Horner's dismissal from Red Bull . The Austrian joined Mercedes as a shareholder and team principal back in January 2013. Following him in the current evergreen hit list are Andrea Stella (McLaren), who has been in office since December 13, 2022, and Frederic Vasseur (Ferrari), who has been Ferrari team principal since January 9, 2023. A gap of ten years.

And the "title" of longest-serving Formula 1 team boss is one that Wolff will likely hold for a few more years. While he has been gradually handing over more responsibility to other leaders within the team for years, he can also imagine devoting more time to the motorsport career of his currently eight-year-old son, Jack, who is just taking his first steps in go-karting.

But: "I'm enjoying it at the moment. I want to continue. At least until the team starts winning again, I still see myself as the executive team boss," says Wolff. "Especially since I'm in the privileged position of having to fire myself. Once I'm no longer the team boss, I can be CEO or chairman, or move to the supervisory board, in agreement with the other shareholders."

"In 2020," he admits, "I really wanted to retire." A fascinating statement, especially considering that he vigorously denied corresponding media reports five years ago, dismissing them as mere myths. Today he says: "My original plan was that I wouldn't mess around with race cars anymore when I was 50, because by then I'd become an adult. But then I came to the conclusion that that's my niche, racing and the business side of it."

Why Wolff really wanted to quit in 2020

2020 was an extraordinary year for the entire world. COVID turned everyday life upside down, and the planet felt like it stood still for weeks. Formula 1 also took a break for months – and its drivers had plenty of time to reflect. Months in which Wolff seriously considered whether he could live well without Formula 1.

But then he reached a crucial turning point: "At some point, I said to myself, okay, this is my niche, I'm going to continue doing this. And I'm going to forget everything I did before. Because I also enjoyed venture capital. I made that decision for myself in 2020."

"Now, my question is: We're 2,500 people at Mercedes. How can I properly manage the workload in such a large structure? And how can I manage the workload in a way that I can still contribute to it? And I'm structuring the team with this in mind. There are no plans to change anything about this in the short term."

Wolff has earned millions as team principal and shareholder at Mercedes in recent years. He married former racing driver Susie Stoddart in 2011, lives primarily in Monaco with Susie and his son Jack, and has already withdrawn somewhat from day-to-day operations compared to his early years.

Wolff is increasingly outsourcing tasks internally

In return, he is handing over more responsibility to his long-time colleagues. In 2020, when he first considered stepping down, he was already loosely discussing potential successors. He had a conversation with Andreas Seidl, James Allison was mentioned, and James Vowles was a possibility. But when Wolff decided to continue running things himself, Vowles' career path was blocked.

"James had just signed a new contract with us, and then the opportunity arose for him to become team principal at Williams," Wolff recalls. "I let him do it because I said, 'I'm staying for now, and I'm standing in your way here. So do it at Williams, James.'"

Currently, it's noticeable, even to outside observers, that Wolff is increasingly developing his longtime communications director Bradley Lord as his right-hand man and deputy. Where Wolff used to give short TV interviews after sessions, Lord is now increasingly heard in his place.

And behind the scenes, too, "I'm bringing Bradley with me more and more often," says Wolff, adding: "Bradley now represents the team in the Formula 1 Commission and in all sorts of other committees. He takes a lot of the burden off my shoulders. I think I'll stay team principal. Because it's basically my team. Anything else would be kind of weird."

Will son Jack make the leap into professional motorsport?

But: "The thing with my son, karting, is getting more and more serious," says Wolff. In "two or three years," he thinks, he might well want to devote more attention to it than before. Even now, he occasionally watches the live timing of some kart race in the Mercedes garage on race weekends.

"When a child goes karting or racing cars, it's also dangerous. Maybe in a few years the day will come when I want to be there," says the Mercedes team boss, emphasizing that there will be "no change in the short term," but that he already occasionally misses "test days and even entire weekends" in Formula 1, and yet the world isn't coming to an end.

Wolff considers McLaren structure conceivable

Especially since, in the course of the gradual change in the structure, it is also conceivable for him not to stop being team boss and retire from one day to the next, but to continue to gradually withdraw from operations and move into a more non-executive position within management.

"Perhaps there won't be a team principal in the future, but rather a distribution of roles. Like at McLaren, they have Andrea Stella, a Technical Director, with the title of Team Principal, and Zak calls himself CEO so he's out of the cost cap. Team Principal, CEO, Chairman: It's all getting blurred. And I think our structure will be similar in the future," Wolff announces.

Toto Wolff, born on January 12, 1972, began his active motorsport career in single-seater racing and later moved into GT and endurance racing, where he celebrated class victories in the FIA ​​GT Championship, among other achievements. At the same time, he built a network in motor racing as an investor and manager. Through his involvement with the Williams team (which he led to a listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange), Wolff eventually gained direct access to Formula 1 and also took on management responsibilities in 2009.

His combination of business acumen and racing mentality made him attractive to manufacturers like the Daimler Group. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche persuaded Wolff to move from Williams to Mercedes. There, he was appointed team principal and also received a stake in the racing team. This dual role marked the beginning of a historically unique era that would make Mercedes the dominant force in the hybrid era.