Toto Wolff · Biography

Toto Wolff began racing in 1992, when he lined up in Austrian and German Formula Ford. Born Torger Christian Wolff on 12 January 1972 in Vienna, he spent years combining amateur racing with a career as an investor before becoming, in January 2013, team principal, chief executive and co-owner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

Early years in Vienna

Wolff grew up in Vienna, the son of a physician of Polish background and a father of Romanian background. He attended the Lycée Français de Vienne. When he was eight his father was diagnosed with brain cancer; his parents separated after the diagnosis and his father died seven years later. Wolff enrolled at the Vienna University of Economics and Business but left without completing his degree.

A driver in touring cars and GT

After three seasons of Formula Ford between 1992 and 1994, Wolff took a class win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 1994. He then turned to GT racing: in 2002 he finished sixth in the N-GT category of the FIA GT Championship, with one race victory, and in 2003 he moved to the Italian GT Championship, where he won a race in 2004 alongside Lorenzo Case. In 2006 he was runner-up in the Austrian Rally Championship and won the Dubai 24 Hour. In 2009, driving a Porsche RSR, he set a lap record on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Investor before team boss

Alongside racing, Wolff built a career in finance. He founded Marchfifteen in 1998, initially focused on internet and technology companies, and Marchsixteen Investments in 2004, which took stakes in medium-sized industrial and listed firms. In 2006 he bought 49% of HWA AG, the German company that ran Mercedes' touring car programme, which was floated on the stock exchange in 2007. In 2009 he invested in Williams and joined its board; in 2012 he was named executive director, the year Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix for the team. In October 2011 he married Scottish racing driver Susie Stoddart. He sold two thirds of his Williams shares to Brad Hollinger in 2014 and the rest on 9 March 2016.

Arrival at Mercedes

In January 2013 Wolff left Williams to become executive director of Mercedes, acquiring 30% of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd; Niki Lauda held 10% and the parent company the remaining 60%. The 2014 rules, with hybrid power units, opened a long run of titles: Mercedes won eight consecutive constructors' championships from 2014 to 2021, and its drivers took every drivers' title from 2014 to 2020, six for Lewis Hamilton and one, in 2016, for Nico Rosberg. In 2018 Wolff received the John Bolster Award at the Autosport Awards and, together with Lauda, the FIA President's Award. He also ran the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team, which won two teams' championships, the first in Berlin in August 2021.

Shareholder and a new line-up

After the 2020 season Wolff signed a new agreement and raised his holding to a third of the team, with Ineos coming in as an equal partner to Daimler. On 15 January 2024 Mercedes announced a further three-year deal. After Hamilton left at the end of 2024, Wolff promoted Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a graduate of the team's junior programme, to race alongside George Russell from 2025. In November 2025 American businessman George Kurtz, founder of CrowdStrike, bought 15% of Wolff's holding company, roughly 5% of the team, in a deal that valued Mercedes at about six billion dollars; Wolff kept his roles as team principal and chief executive.

The 2026 titles

The new technical regulations of 2026 put Mercedes back at the front. On 1 November 2026 Antonelli finished third at the Mexico City Grand Prix to become world champion at 20 years and 68 days, the youngest in Formula 1 history and the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953. A week later, at the São Paulo Grand Prix, Mercedes sealed the 2026 constructors' championship, the ninth of the Wolff era and the first since 2021.