MADRID, 15 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The team leader and executive director of the Mercedes AMG F1 Formula 1 team, the Austrian Toto Wolff, revealed this Monday that he will continue with the German team, after signing a contract for the next three seasons, until 2026, because he will not leave ” nowhere”, with the great objective of beating Red Bull again.
Wolff announced his continuity in the 'silver bullets' team in an interview with The Telegraph, after his departure from the structure, of which he is also a shareholder, had long been rumored. “I'm not going anywhere,” he said, explaining that he has just signed a new three-year contract – until 2026, the first year with the new regulations – to continue as team leader and executive director of Mercedes.
“At the end of the day, as a shareholder, I want the best return on investment. And the best return on investment is winning. I'm not going to try to hold on to a position that I think someone is going to do better than me. I “I make sure I have people around me who can tell me otherwise. In the end the three shareholders decided: 'Let's do it again,'” he explained.
Wolff reiterated that he is “in a good place” heading into the 2024 season and reported that his new contract does not include performance clauses. “I've never had them. Either you trust the other or you don't. And we are aligned as shareholders,” he added.
“I feel good. The risk for me is always more boredom than exhaustion. And that's why I accept the challenges we have now, even though sometimes they seem very, very difficult to manage,” he commented on Mercedes' possible performance in the short term, with the aim of regaining a title now under the dominant power of Red Bull.
And the Austrian sees a great progression for Mercedes in 2024 as “possible”. “You cannot start the season with an attitude of 'this is not going to be possible'. Last year we saw with McLaren the enormous step they took with just one “It improves. We have signed a two-year agreement with Hamilton, and we owe it to him, Russell and the entire team to give it our full attention in 2024 and 2025,” he said.
Wolff pointed out that the veteran British driver can be champion again. “There is a reason why Lewis is a seven-time world champion, and has broken all the records… His ability is on another level. If we are able to give him a car that really feels, that drives in a way that can trust, he will be at the necessary level to win the championship. 39 years is not old,” he highlighted.
“George Russell has absolutely met the team's expectations. George is our future,” he insists. “And when I look at all the young, current Formula One drivers, he's the one I'd like to have in a car,” he said of his other driver.
In addition, Wolff was concerned about the latest decisions of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), and asked for more “stability” in the organization. “He is one of the three key stakeholders of F-1. As leaders, we have to set the standard for everyone else. We not only have to say that we act transparently and ethically, but we have to live up to that standard every day “he warned.
Wolff took the opportunity to question the state of the FIA, following the departures in recent weeks of sporting director Steve Nielsen, single-seater technical director Tim Goss and the head of the FIA women's commission Deborah Mayer. “It is worrying that so many good people are leaving. There is a void. You have to ask yourself why so many people have suddenly decided to leave,” she admitted.
Finally, Wolff did not want to fully enter into the matter generated by the FIA itself, an entity that sparked controversy by announcing last month that it had opened an investigation based on “speculation in the media” about “a complaint of information of a confidentially transmitted to an F-1 team leader by a member of the FOM staff.”
The organization did not specify who it was referring to, the media reported that the protagonists of this accusation could be Toto and Susie Wolff. “I think that, because there are a billion or more people who watch our sport, we are a role model. And we must be careful with the impact of what we do and say. What has been said and the way in which it has been done “It has been very damaging,” he said, without announcing legal action.