Mattia Binotto Reveals Ferrari Would’ve Stopped Toto Wolff From Becoming F1 CEO

Toto Wolff earlier revealed that he was involved in talks to take over as the CEO of Formula 1. However, the deliberations failed to materialize into anything meaningful. With regards to the possibility of Wolff being sworn in as CEO, Matia Binotto recently confirmed that the Scuderia were all set to exercise their power of Veto had the talks been fruitful.

Binotto clarified that the decision to Veto was not born out of any personal ill-will against Wolff. “Wolff? it’s not a joke, we can Veto and our choice was not personal against him.

“He too could be right for the role, but we don’t want someone directly involved in a team. Domenicali is neutral. He’s been out of this world for years. Even Horner we aren’t going to vote for him, so we wanted someone external to F1,” declared Binotto.

Toto Wolff, currently functioning in the capacity of the Team Principal and the CEO at Mercedes, had recently revealed that he was looking for an alternative role within the team.

CEO of Formula 1 would have been an alternative option all right, however, would it have served the purpose of reducing the levels of stress? We think not. However, since that avenue is now unavailable to the Austrian, the nature of his role within the Silver Arrows remains clouded in mystery and intrigue.

(The above quotes are translated from Italian using Google Translate)

Ferrari wouldn’t have accepted that

Toto reveals that the talks with Liberty Media did not go far. “I think everybody knows that there were some initial discussions with Greg, and it never went anywhere,” said Wolff.

“We get on well. I respect Greg Maffei a lot for what he has achieved. But I love where I am, and I found out that I love the stopwatch so much, the competition and the racing, that where I am today, co-owner of the team with Mercedes, I have to pinch myself every single day.

“In the end, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere, because Ferrari wouldn’t have accepted that.”

Wolff also mentioned that he knew Ferrari would not have let him take over as the CEO. But he felt if he was in Ferrari’s position, he would have done the same.