Toto Wolff Recalls Fresher Day at Mercedes With Contrasting Differences of the F1 Big Boys’ Club: “Compared to Williams”

One of the longest-serving team principals on the grid and arguably one of the most successful, Toto Wolff, is synonymous with Mercedes. The Austrian won an unprecedented eight world championships during his short tenure of ten years. In fact, during the 2023 Australian GP is when Wolff completed his decade-long partnership with the team. In an exclusive interview, he revealed how it was completely different from his time at Williams.

The Austrian boss always had incredible business acumen. While making his way through the tech sector, he landed himself in business with Williams. Williams proved to be the stepping stone to the Mercedes partnership, which was supposed to last three years. However, Wolff kept increasing his investment in the project and eventually became a part owner. A lot has happened in the past ten years and the Austrian discussed and reminisced about that during his conversation with Motorsport.

Wolff said, “I hadn’t thought about it… already, Melbourne 2013, I remember that I had arrived in Australia with Susie, the weather wasn’t great, and I well remember the difference in the commitments with the media compared to Williams’ times. It’s been a long journey, already, ten years.”

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Williams to Mercedes was a big jump for Wolff and owning a third of the team was an even bigger jump. However, these jumps have been paying dividends by the boatload.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff becomes a billionaire thanks to his investment in Mercedes

The Austrian had already amassed a massive net worth during his time at Mercedes. Valued at $540 million, Wolff’s net worth grew after Netflix’s Drive to Survive skyrocketed the sport’s popularity and value.

According to Forbes, because of the massive growth in the sport’s popularity, Wolff precisely hit the billion dollars mark in 2022. Wolff became one of the 12 new entries in the billion-dollar club. In comparison, the most popular figure on the grid and the world Lewis Hamilton is valued at $370 million. There is a massive $630 million difference.

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The Mercedes boss is playing the long game now with the team and wants to grow along with the team. Hopefully, they can move past this difficult period and get back to winning ways.