Toto Wolff

Torger Christian "Toto" Wolff (born 12 January 1972) is an Austrian motorsport executive, investor, and former racing driver. He holds a 33% stake in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and is Team Principal and CEO of the team.

Wolff began his motorsport career in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Ford Series. He won his category in the 1994 24 Hours Nürburgring and later competed in the FIA GT Championship and Italian GT Championship. As an investor, Wolff founded Marchfifteen in 1998 and Marchsixteen Investments in 2004, initially focusing on Internet and technology companies. He specialises in strategic investments in medium-sized industrial and listed companies, which have included Williams F1 and German HWA AG.

Early life

Wolff was born on 12 January 1972 in Vienna to a Polish mother and a Romanian father. His mother was a physician. He grew up in the city and was educated in a French school there, despite not coming from a wealthy family. Wolff's father was diagnosed with brain cancer when he was eight years old. His parents separated following his father's diagnosis. His father died of the disease during Wolff's adolescence.

Motorsport

Wolff started his motorsport career in 1992 in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship, driving in Austrian and German Formula Ford in 1993 and 1994. In 1994, he won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in his category. In 2002 Wolff finished in sixth place in the N-GT category in the FIA GT Championship and won one race. He switched to the Italian GT Championship in 2003, winning a race in 2004 with Lorenzo Case, while also teaming with Karl Wendlinger in the FIA GT Championship. Wolff was runner up in the Austrian Rally Championship in 2006, and winner of the 2006 Dubai 24 Hour. Wolff has also served as an instructor at the Walter Lechner Racing School and in 2009 became a lap-record holder on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in a Porsche RSR. Wolff also has overall responsibility for the Mercedes EQ Formula E Team.

Formula One

In 2009, Wolff bought a share of the Williams Formula One Team and joined the board of directors. In 2012, he was named executive director of Williams F1 and the team took its last race win to date at that year's Spanish Grand Prix with Pastor Maldonado.

In January 2013, Wolff left Williams F1 to become an executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, with his business partner Rene Berger becoming non-executive director. In addition to joining the team as managing partner, he also acquired 30% of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd, with a further 10% held by Niki Lauda and 60% by the parent company.

Wolff took over the co-ordination of all Mercedes-Benz motorsport activities, a responsibility previously held by Norbert Haug. In 2014, Wolff sold two-thirds of his Williams shares to American businessman Brad Hollinger. On 9 March 2016, Wolff sold his remaining shares in the Williams team.

As co-owner of both WilliamsF1 (where wife Susie worked as a test driver until November 2015) and Mercedes Grand Prix, Wolff celebrated numerous podiums and successes for both teams, such as a 1–2–3–4 finish at Spielberg, Austria in his 'home race', as well as at Monza, Italy, in both Qualifying and Race classifications.

In 2020, Mercedes won its record seventh consecutive double world championship. The record had previously been held by Ferrari when it won five consecutive double world championships between 2000 and 2004. Mercedes also hold the record of seven consecutive Driver's Championships from 2014 to 2020. This record was also previously held by Ferrari with five titles from 2000 to 2004. In 2020, Mercedes' record of seven consecutive Constructor's Championships surpassed that of Ferrari's six consecutive Constructor's Championships set between 1999 and 2004. Wolff's achievements were recognised through the presentation of a John Bolster Award from Todt at the 2018 Autosport Awards. Wolff subsequently received the President's Award from Todt, along with team non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, at the 2018 FIA Prize Giving Gala held in St Petersburg, Russia.

2018 proved the most successful motorsport year in the history of Mercedes-Benz. The company won both F1 titles, F2 with George Russell, European F3 with Mick Schumacher, all three titles in its final season of DTM competition with Gary Paffett securing the drivers' title, both F1 eSports titles and numerous championships in customer racing.

For 2019, Mercedes continued its run of success by securing a sixth consecutive double world championship at the Japanese GP, when the team secured the Constructors' title and only one of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas could still become Drivers' champion. This is an unprecedented achievement in the history of the sport. As of 2019, Wolff is the only Team Principal who has won more than five consecutive double world championships.

In 2020, Mercedes has secured a seventh consecutive double world championship. This sets an all-time record of consecutive constructors' championships, ahead of the six achieved by Ferrari from 1999 to 2004. In the same season, Lewis Hamilton became the most successful driver in terms of race wins at the 2020 Portuguese GP, and secured a seventh world drivers' championship at the Turkish GP to tie the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.

Since the introduction of the turbo-hybrid regulations in 2014, Mercedes has won 111 of 160 races under Wolff's leadership. The team has taken 118 of 160 pole positions, 73 front-row lockouts and 232 from 320 possible podium finishes. Since Wolff joined Mercedes in 2013, the team has achieved a winning percentage of 64%.

Following the end of the 2020 F1 season, Wolff signed a new deal with Mercedes to continue as team principal and CEO for at least another 3 years.

As of 2021, Toto Wolff's net worth is estimated at CHF 1.25 billion (2021).