Lewis Hamilton has had one of the most decorated F1 careers in history. Yet, he strives to claim more glory to date. While the British driver has not had the best time in the past two years, he has enough motivation to stay at Mercedes till 2025. However, he also wouldn’t mind swapping his role temporarily with his billionaire boss Toto Wolff, with a wish to boss people around!
In a YouTube video by Mercedes F1, Hamilton expressed this wish to replace Wolff for a day. He stated, “I would probably say Toto because he is the boss. Being the boss for the day would be kinda neat. Boss everyone around.”
Hamilton has a net worth of $285 million and he works with multiple high-profile brands for endorsements. While it is the Briton’s F1 success that has propelled his image in the market, his boss Toto Wolff is a shrewd business magnate.
The Austrian after quitting his racing career, relied on his business acumen to make wise and smart investments and made a fortune for himself. Wolff currently has a net worth of over $1 billion. Earlier in F1, he used to own a stake in the Williams F1 team.
Currently, Wolff owns a 33% stake in the Mercedes-AMG F1 team and also serves as its team principal. This stake, which he bought back in 2013, is now estimated to be worth over $3.2 billion.
During his Williams days, Wolff had a position on the board of directors of the team. Later he was appointed as the Executive director of the team. However, once he moved to the Silver Arrows, his involvement increased in the Brackley garages and now the 52-year-old has become the face of the Mercedes outfit.
How Toto Wolff became one of the most successful F1 team bosses
Toto Wolff has a humble beginning in F1 at Williams. From 2009 to 2012, the Austrian investor was involved in the Grove outfit and it mainly seemed like a business investment for him. However, his path changed when he bought his Mercedes stake in 2013.
This was the season when the Brackley team started to turn a corner on its competitiveness. Mercedes won a few races in the 2013 season while Wolff became the team boss at the outfit. This was just the beginning as the 52-year-old was going to oversee one of the most dominant periods by any team in F1’s history after that.
Wolff tasted glory immediately in 2014 with Lewis Hamilton winning his second world championship, and the German team dominating the season. This carried on for seven years till 2020 as Mercedes gathered championships for a living.
As for Wolff’s leadership style, it was a mix of empathy and strong-mindedness. His relationship with Lewis Hamilton and others was always great. Still, the Austrian never hesitated to crack the whip once in a while. A classic case in point was the Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry in 2016. Nico Rosberg was often at loggerheads with Hamilton, and they had their intense on-track battles. To resolve this, Wolff had to take desperate measures to ensure both these drivers didn’t go overboard.
