Did Mercedes F1 Boss Toto Wolff Ever Race for Rival Team Red Bull?

Toto Wolff was at the helm of one of the most dominant runs F1 has ever seen. Winning the constructors’ championship 8 times in as many years is an unbelievable feat. It is a feat that will be mighty difficult for any team, including his own, to replicate in the future. But before the Austrian manager took the reins of Mercedes, he was an avid racer himself, one who excelled in rallying and GT racing. During his racing stint, there was a time when he didn’t just race with his present rivals, Red Bull, but also won them a number of laurels.

Toto’s love for racing did not start early and therefore he wasn’t arguably a purist driver. He did not have experience in karting and that put him at a big disadvantage in comparison to other drivers. However, the talent was natural and won him several races. That being said, Toto was aware of his shortcomings and knew his 6 ft. 4 stature wasn’t doing him any favors. As reality started to sink in, Wolff decided it was time to hang up his boots and venture into the commercial side of things.

When Toto Wolff raced for Red Bull

Toto developed a fierce rivalry with Red Bull since joining Mercedes as their team principal. The champion-challenger relationship saw a competition develop among them that often spilled over outside of the racetrack. To this day, when the roles have reversed, with Mercedes being the challenger and Red Bull the champion, the war of words continues between the drivers and the team principals.

The animosity didn’t exist before Toto’s entry into F1, though. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Wolff raced with Red Bull overalls between 2004 and 2006 in a car that had the energy drinks branding. In his very first year with the team, he won his class in the 1000 miles of Interlagos with Karl Wendlinger, Dieter Quester, and Stefano Zonca. Racing under treacherous wet conditions, Toto set the fastest lap time.

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Toto continued to don Red Bull’s blue overalls when he won the Misano 6 Hours in 2005 with Dieter Quester and Phillip Peter. In 2006, they joined legendary Hans-Joachim Stuck to win the inaugural Dubai 24-Hour race.

When Toto ignored Niki Lauda’s advice and was involved in a horrific crash

Nurburgring Nordschleife has earned quite a notoriety among race drivers and fans. Regarded as one of the most dangerous tracks in the world, it is the circuit that almost ended Niki Lauda‘s career with the fiery crash he had in 1976. Before Toto was about to take on the 12.8-mile track in 2009, Lauda cautioned him against going too fast.

Wolff was, however, determined to set the fastest lap and in his first attempt, did achieve it. He beat the Queen of Nurburgring, Sabine Schmitz’s time by 4 seconds, setting an impressive timing of 7:03.28. That, however, was not enough for the future Mercedes boss as he got back into his Porsche 911 RSR to set a sub-seven-minute lap time.

This time around, he could feel something off with the car’s handling. As he was going at 189mph, his rear-right tire exploded, sending him into the guardrails. While he came out of the car on his own, he soon fell unconscious because of a heavy concussion injury. Some nerve damage saw his sense of taste and smell wither away for the next six months.

Recalling his experience in an interview with ESPN, Wolff said, “I love this track and I don’t regret a thing, but then I met Niki again — who before had said that the record attempt was idiotic — and when I came back and we had dinner again, he simply said ‘I told you so’.”

Toto, however, decided never to return to Nordschleife ever.

How the rivalry between Mercedes and Red Bull developed

Mercedes started racing in F1 in 2010. That was when Red Bull was enjoying the success it had never had before, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel. The Silver Arrows were, however, emerging as a contender, improving each year. With the start of the hybrid engine era came the Brackley-based outfit’s time to shine.

Red Bull’s dominance was finally over, and the partnership with Lewis Hamilton had only begun. For the next 8 years, Red Bull was the prime contender, though, along with Ferrari. The Milton-Keynes-based team came closest to winning the constructors’ trophy in 2021 when Max Verstappen won his maiden F1 championship by a whisker. In 2022, as the FIA introduced another slew of changes for the cars, the balance once again shifted in the Austrian team’s favor.

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For the first time in his 16-year-long F1 career, Lewis Hamilton went a full season without a race win. The team went non-competitive for almost the whole season. It was only in the final few races that the Silver Arrows showed signs of resurgence and won the race at Interlagos. Given that it is Toto Wolff driving the ship, the slump can never last for too long.