Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff detailed that he’s currently screening people to take over his role at the F1 team. The 54-year-old owns a third of the Mercedes F1 team, but is looking for his successor as the leader of the Brackley-based outfit.
Toto Wolff joined Mercedes ahead of the 2013 season, at the same time when Lewis Hamilton joined the squad. Wolff had previously founded investment firms and then went on to buy a share in Williams F1. As he joined Mercedes as the Executive Director, he also acquired a third of the F1 team, with Ineos and Mercedes-Benz Group owning 33% each.
Wolff, within the first decade with Mercedes as the Director, Team Principal and CEO, went on to win eight constructor titles and seven driver championships. The Mercedes Boss has also been responsible for scouting talents like George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Toto Wolff’s current Mercedes contract will end after the 2026 season. He signed a three-year extension in 2023. Speaking on the Cheeky Pint podcast, Wolff detailed his Mercedes plans for the future. He mentioned how he’s started vetting people for his role, as he said,
“There will be a solid management structure. I believe my job is going to be divided between two or three people that I’m vetting at the moment that I believe are already doing a great job with all of their strengths in various areas.”
“And then it’s gonna be different, but it will be a successful team. I think a clean break is probably not possible if I continue to own it with my family. So that kind of executive, non-executive chairmanship is something that may happen,” he added
“But it needs to happen in a very, very precise way. Because you can’t be on the sidelines and interfere with the daily business,” Toto Wolff said.
Toto Wolff reveals both drivers to run upgraded Mercedes at US GP
Mercedes brought a significant upgrade at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia. However, the package didn’t seem to work as intended, with Max Verstappen dominating the weekend. At the next race in Singapore, George Russell ran the old package while Kimi Antonelli had the new package.
This was done to understand exactly where the new package wasn’t performing out on track. However, ahead of the US GP at the Circuit of the Americas, Wolff confirmed that both Russell and Antonelli will run the new package.
“Malaysia and Singapore were difficult weekends for us and we have worked hard to understand where we fell short. Austin gives us an opportunity to respond. We will run our latest update package on both cars as we continue to develop the car. The field is incredibly close, so we need to keep moving forward if we want to fight consistently at the front in the closing stages of the season.”
If the Qatar GP and Abu Dhabi GP are cancelled due to the situation in the Middle East, Kimi Antonelli can win the championship at the upcoming race weekend in Austin, Texas.
