Toto Wolff shares ‘totally impossible’ F1 achievement he never thought he would manage

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Toto Wolff is a name that will go down in Formula 1 history, having led Mercedes to seven consecutive championship doubles between 2014 and 2020.

His journey to the sport is one of the more fascinating tales of anyone in the paddock, having first aspired to be a racing driver – much like his rival colleague Christian Horner.

Eventually, he found himself in the position of executive director at Williams Racing by 2012, after buying a share of the team in 2009, before he left to take up a similar post with Mercedes in 2013.

The following year he took over from Norbert Haug as the man overseeing all Mercedes-Benz’s motorsport programmes and has never looked back.

Toto Wolff thought that home one-two finish was ‘totally impossible’ in F1

During the first dominant season that Mercedes enjoyed in 2014, Formula 1 returned to Austria to race for the first time in over a decade.

Still fresh-faced at the time, little did Wolff know that his team would achieve something that he never thought would be possible in his wildest dreams, as he revealed to the Performance People Podcast.

“We won in Austria in 2014, that was the first year where we fought for the championship and actually won,” he said. “We finished first and second, and the Williams team finished third and fourth. I was still a shareholder with Williams back in the day, so it was first, second, third and fourth.

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“It was in Austria that had a tremendous emotional component for me, because I used to work on that track as an instructor. Tried to race and make a living.

“So I spent many, many weeks every year driving there. Winning that, and then my journey from teaching there was always back in the car back to Vienna, which was a two hour drive through the mountains. I took the car on that same way back, and I thought that 20 years ago, I drove that road.

“I could barely make a living for my money, I was dreaming about being a racing driver, knowing that I lacked the funds and here 20 years later, [I] had just been part of a team that finished first and how crazy that is.

“If somebody would have told that to the 20-year-old Toto, that would have seemed totally impossible, yet it happened.”

Does Wolff have the ability to lead Mercedes back to the top?

Formula 1 goes through periods of dominance all the time, and although it feels like the Silver Arrows’ time has been and gone, they have enjoyed a bit of a mini resurgence recently.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli could be the next Max Verstappen, but he will need time to get used to his new surroundings when he joins next season.

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After all, it took Verstappen five seasons with Red Bull before both team and driver were ready to make a title charge against Lewis Hamilton.

Wolff has a good relationship with Verstappen himself, and could be looking to make a move for the Dutchman for 2026 anyways as the Red Bull team destabilises by the day.

He and Antonelli would form a fearsome partnership, which you struggle to see being beaten by anyone if their rivals are close on pace.