Mercedes team boss
The pain drives him: Toto Wolff wants to lead Lewis Hamilton into Formula 1 Olympus
Lewis Hamilton says of Toto Wolff (r.): “His fighting spirit makes me happy”
© Ozan Kose / DPA
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is driven, which is related to an experience in his childhood. His ambition has brought him far. Now he wants to help Lewis Hamilton jump into Formula 1 Olympus.
Toto Wolff remembers the pain. The Mercedes Formula 1 team boss once told an episode from his childhood to explain his special drive. There is talk of an incentive that made the boss of Lewis Hamilton one of the most successful team bosses in the motorsport premier class. “To be successful, you need extra motivation, extra energy. It comes through pain,” said Wolff.
His father died of a brain tumor after ten years of fighting. His mother, a doctor, kept the two children and herself afloat. She tried to enable Toto Wolff and his sister to study in Vienna at a French private school. If you can’t keep up financially, you’re out. “We were taken out of class because we could no longer pay the fees,” said Wolff once. He was twelve at the time and his sister nine years old.
Toto Wolff: The humiliation runs deep
After the report to the directorate, the two children had to go back to their classes, pack their things and leave school. “The humiliation sits deep inside me,” admitted Wolff. “I’m certainly trying to overcompensate for that.”
Nevertheless, or probably because of it, Wolff made a career. He’s clever. For an evening protest against racism in Vienna in 1990, during which candles were to be lit, he bought 125,000 wax sticks in advance from a factory and later sold them on site. Business was going well, and part of the profit went to the organizers. “If you can generate demand for a product, it will also sell,” said Wolff, who was not yet 20 years old at the time.
He has a nose. Wolff, whose first name is actually Torger Christian, studied economics in Vienna and quickly founded his first investment company. His career as a racing driver was manageable, but he was much more successful as a businessman, driver manager and, above all, team boss at the Silver Arrows.
Yes-sayers are not welcome under Wolff
Since the beginning of 2013 as the successor to the former head of motorsport Norbert Haug, Wolff has trimmed Mercedes with superstar Hamilton to become the industry leader thanks to modern management. “I don’t need yes-men around me,” emphasized Wolff, who has a big truck: “I explode quickly. This is a massive weakness and has got me into a mess a few times.”
In Brazil, for example, Wolff scolded the race management after a tough defensive maneuver by Max Verstappen against Hamilton, who did not punish the Red Bull driver’s action against his star. It was an “absolute mess”, said the Mercedes team boss. Just the temperament.
Hamilton appreciates the attack department. “His fighting spirit makes me happy,” said Verstappen’s World Cup pursuer before the last two races of the season in Saudi Arabia this weekend and a week later in Abu Dhabi.
He only wants one thing: the eighth world title in a row
Since the death of the conflict-ridden team supervisory board member Niki Lauda in 2019, Wolff has been the sole interior and foreign minister at Mercedes, a kind of super minister. Red Bull has team boss Christian Horner and motorsport consultant Helmut Marko. Wolff verbally takes on both of them. There was also enough material for that this season.
As managing director, team boss and co-owner of the Mercedes racing team, Wolff has an overwhelming interest in success. For the eighth time in a row he wants to get the double from the drivers and constructors’ championship with Mercedes. That has never been seen in Formula 1. Hamilton is the key to it. “For me there are outstanding pilots in every era,” said Wolff of the Englishman, who with title number eight can become the sole record champion ahead of Michael Schumacher. “That gives Lewis the chance to go up to Olympus.”