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Cheeky Pint · 3 min · Oct 20, 2026

Wolff expects two or three people to share his role

Toto Wolff

Team Principal & Co-Owner, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Led Mercedes to eight consecutive constructors' titles from 2014 to 2021; part-owner and team principal since 2013.

  • John CollisonHost · Co-founder & president, Stripe

    Sold his first startup, Auctomatic, at 17, then co-founded Stripe in 2010.

About this segment

Wolff is vetting internal leaders to divide his responsibilities, and says any future chair role needs clear limits. He wants to stay out of daily decisions.

From “How Toto Wolff built the most valuable team in F1”, Oct 20, 2026. Watch the full episode

“my job is going to be divided between two or three people that I'm vetting at the moment”
Toto Wolffat 1:09:18 · Cheeky Pint1:09:18

Takeaways

  1. He expects to divide his job among two or three internal leaders.
  2. A chair role would need clear limits on intervention.
  3. His children are not interested in taking over.
Watch 3:10 from 1:08:02

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 11:59Mercedes tested a clever loophole before putting it on the car4:59
  2. 28:59A CFO’s warning led Wolff to exit his dot-com investments5:18
  3. 46:27F1 teams combine scarce-asset appeal with strong profits6:52
  4. 0:12F1 spots driver talent through pace, feel and teamwork4:25
  5. 6:15Mercedes screens engineers for values as well as ability2:22
  6. 21:03Mercedes stops engineering work that misses the lap-time target4:13
  7. 37:55Ownership gives Wolff room to run Mercedes entrepreneurially5:00

  8. 1:08:02Wolff expects two or three people to share his role3:10

Up next · BG2Nvidia demand rests on three segments, not two AI labs4:13

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 1:08:06

    Last question. How do you set Mercedes up for succession? How will this work post-toto, and how can you prepare for that? You know, I've seen examples of entrepreneurs that were either so selfish or believed in their own eternity and forever life, that they didn't look after not only their families, but also the company. For me, it is not important to leave a legacy and call the building the whatever, the total building or so, which I hear some people are doing nowadays.

  2. 1:08:50

    You already have the toilets named after you. Yeah, exactly. I wish I would own the core on this business. That's massive. Especially now with AI. Exactly. we should ask them to sponsor for sponsorship yeah so for me it's important to do to do what's best for the family and to do what's best for the team and that means looking at the structure going forward where this team can live without me and probably it's not going to be the same because i have the credibility as an entrepreneur that that's leading my own businesses but there will be a solid management structure and i believe that my job is going to be divided between two or three people that I'm vetting at the moment that I believe are already doing a great job with all of their strengths in various areas.

  3. 1:09:35

    And then it's going to be different, but it will be a successful team. Do you think you will set things up where maybe you move to sort of executive chairman type of role where you don't have to be there every race weekend, you let the new person set their direction, but you can help with personnel and be there for advice? Or do you think it's important to have a clean break and you get out and it's their show now?

  4. 1:09:57

    I think clean break is probably not possible if I continue to own it with my family. So that kind of executive and non-executive chairmanship is something that may happen. But it needs to happen in a very, very precise way. Because you can't be on the sidelines and interfere into the daily business. I also don't want to end up in a situation that I believe the family can run it the best way and then be just mediocre.

  5. 1:10:31

    You have to earn your spot in running it and you have to contribute. My children also don't have any interest. So I believe that if you are chairman, non-executive or executive, you need to exactly know your role. And that doesn't mean shooting from the outside and being the one that sits on the on the grandstand and says you've screwed up and you've screwed up and this is how i'm calling the drivers directly and you can't call the drivers directly if it's about you know keeping the contact but it's not about interfering into the daily business and that's how i would aim to be yes in the future but it's i'm still enjoying it too much