Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC has confirmed that Toto Wolff will be leaving the company with immediate effect to take up a new role with Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. Wolff will be relinquishing his seat on the Williams board of directors, but will retain his shareholding (for the moment).
Team Principal and majority shareholder Sir Frank Williams will continue to oversee the running of the Company with Wolff’s responsibilities being shared between members of the executive committee.
“I would like to thank Toto for his hard work, dedication and commitment to the team during his time as a director of the company,” said Sir Frank Williams. “He was a key support to me as executive director last season, deputising at a number of races when I was unable to attend. However, positions such as the one offered to him by Mercedes do not come around often. Toto has a long history with them and I certainly was not going to stand in the way of him accepting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Toto will retain his shareholding in Williams and will always have a place at Grove, but make no mistake; we will fight him hard on the racetrack! I am sure he will be a strong asset for Mercedes and on behalf of the whole team I would like to wish him the best of luck in his new role. I’m lucky to have a very professional group of people around me and the company’s executive committee will continue the work they have been doing to ensure a successful future for the business.”
The team’s executive board members are Sir Frank Williams, CEO Alex Burns, Mark Biddle, the general counsel and company secretary, the finance director Louise Evans and head of marketing and communications Claire Williams.
Daimler AG has signed a letter of intent with Wolff, according to which Wolff will acquire a significant minority interest in the Daimler subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd and will also head that company as its executive director. Furthermore, Niki Lauda, currently non-executive chairman of MGP, will also acquire a stake in the company. Together with Ross Brawn, Lauda and Wolff will complete the management of the Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 racing team.
“As an entrepreneur, investor and motorsport manager, Toto Wolff has proven that this sport runs in his blood; at the same time, he is also well aware of the economic necessities of the business,” said Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz. “With Toto Wolff, we have gained for our Formula 1 team not only an experienced motorsport specialist, but also a longstanding enthusiast of the Mercedes-Benz brand. Together with him and Niki Lauda, we will further develop our motorsport activities and guide our Silver Arrows into the next era.”
Wolff will take over the complete coordination of all Mercedes-Benz motorsport activities.
“Mercedes is one of the most important participants in motorsport worldwide,” Wolff said. “I am not only a big fan, but also a longstanding friend and enthusiast of the brand. I am looking forward to the challenge and, along with preparing for a successful racing season, also want to focus on the targeted promotion of new talent. I am leaving Williams on good terms and I will miss the team and friends I have made there. I’d also like to wish Frank and the whole of Williams the best of luck for the future.”
Mercedes engines for Williams in 2014?!?!
I very much doubt that.
Where do you think this leaves Susie Wolff? Apparently she performed well enough in her test with the team to get the test driver role, but her husband must have been a huge factor in her signing as well. Will she jump ship too? Perhaps this is a chance for her to show what she can do on her own merits.
I suspect that she is useful for the team in terms of getting sponsors interested.
She’s staying at Grove for now…
Does this affect somehow to Bottas and why everyone wants / have to leave Williams ?? I don’t get, where is the continuity, when Sir Williams and Patric Head are away ??
Patrick is not really involved in the F1 team these days.
What do you think, why this position, the executive director of Williams F1, is such a “stormy” ??
does this have an impact on Nick Fry? he wasn’t mentioned with Brawn and Lauda. Normally Brawn and Fry are seen a working unit.
Fry is CEO of the team, not the holding company.
If Toto was a possible successor to mr. Williams. Then (although I do understand his decission) this might be for the best. Williams deserves someone to over his place that is as motivated as he is to fight for Williams as a team. Not someone that is also motivated by wheeling and dealing as his own entrepreneur who might have gotten conflicting interests.
How many more chiefs does Mercedes need? I am losing count of all the people they buy/hire – but it seems to me incredible that the team will ever win anything significant as it is way too top heavy and can only become hyper-bureaucratic. At least if they do win races commentators will know the faces of those who go to get the silverware…
I know design and manufacturing is very much based in uk. But the f1 centre of gravity is shiifting to Austria. Redbull and toro rosso both Austrian owned and Mercedes amg now part owned and run by wolff & lauda. Austria seems to be punching above its weight in f1 right now.
No it is not. A couple of years from now half of these people will be gone.
Ah, but which half? Does Joe know something WE don’t know? Or does he know something DAIMLER don’t know? Watch this space!
This news leaves me wondering how many cooks you need to make a Mercedes broth.
Half?
Joe,
This was a surprise to read today. So what about Haug to Williams as his replacement? What odds would you give on the return of Parr? Deal is done with FOM, why not bring him back? You were forced to dump him and scuttle your plans, why not reverse that? Think with Bernie’s issues he will somehow let the world know for sure he forced him out the first time and invite the EU in again to look over the state of F1?
Just read Nick Fry is also out at Mercedes, would he end up on the short list at Williams? How did Nick Fry get on with Ross Brawn? Is this evidence that Brawn is now in a weaker position with one less person in his corner? Certainly you cant have 4 senior managers, you cant get consensus, so one had to go or you needed another and then the recruiting practices of Mercedes would be under the microscope..
I don’t see that happening.
Is there anything going on within Williams that could link both Parr and Wolff leaving after relatively short tenures? After all they had both been touted as Franks successors which would surely be a pretty attractive proposition?
Frank Williams is a true gentleman as his words here show.
! absolutely agree. MB will be/are running out of excuses this year – hope Ross Brawn doesn’t feel too alienated by all of this
2011 was bad, not having a car ready for the Jerez test, and now this, I just have a feeling that Williams is on a slippery slope. With the technical and human resources they had, you can’t help but feel they should be doing better. Wolfe seemed like a sound succession plan.
They currently remind me of how Jordan seemed just before Eddie threw in the towel.
I would guess that throwing in the old towel [or cashing in the chips, if you prefer] was always Eddie’s long term plan Good luck to him.
I really hope Bottas delivers for Sir F. !
Don’t I remember Sir Frank retiring last year? Or was it when he handed over to Adam Parr?
Meanwhile it is standing room only at Merc in the director’s suite. I cannot help thinking that we have the ingredients for a huge explosion later.
Lewis must be wondering what he has got into. Is there some secret competition to see which team can acquire the most top heavy structure. Looks like any bonus for mechanics this year has gone in yet another director sized salary. (plus expenses).
I still find it hard to see Niki Lauda having a non-exec position in F1.
Given the changes at Mercedes GP since the Hamilton signing yu have to assume he knew these were in the pipeline and have to wonder if there are any others yet to happen,
Would Toto Wolff have had a contract of employment at Williams? It seems a little odd that he can leave and immediately start working for a competitor?
He is a shareholder. They don’t have contracts.
I just heard that Mercedes are hiring Gerhard Berger to complete the Austrian trio…..or maybe I’m confusing that with something composed by Mozart
Mercedes now have so many senior sporting and technical people that being a mere former technical director only entitles you to be the fellow with the spray bottle who cleans the tyre marks off the garage floor–
Which begs two questions:
1) How long does Ross Brawn have before the Mercedes board decide that it’s time for a change?
2) Will Ross settle into retirement with rod and reel, or (if offered a chance to really run his own show without shareholders continually thinking they know better, see also Toronto Maple Leafs) would he take on a new challenge? A team like Caterham could benefit from his leadership — or perhaps he could buy Force India — or if Honda are coming back into the sport in the next few years, maybe there’s unfinished business there…
Joe,
One of -those- websites claims that Mercedes have ‘confirmed’ that they have surrendered 40% of the shares in the F1 team, 10% to Lauda, 30% to Wolff. They don’t mention Brawn having a shareholding.
If that’s true, then that’s surprised me more than anything in F1 in the last year.
I have seen more reputable references to an unspecified shareholding – but no indication of scale.
Any idea what the truth is, & what it might mean? Thank you.
Forty percent of the shares were previously owned by Aabar. I doubt that either Lauda or Wolff could afford to own large percentages, but they may have silent backers.
Hi Joe. Can you please give us a brief background on Toto Wolff – is his fortune self made or inherited as in some interview he says he was a racer with no money, so he came back into the sport as a financier. He seems to have his hands in quite a few pies in this expensive Formula 1 kitchen, though he’s just about 41 and that’s very inspiring. It would be great to get your insight.
I believe I did that yesterday…
Pardon me Joe. Missed reading that post! Thank you very much as always
This blog is a compulsive!
How about a promotion for Claire Williams, Frank cant do it all now Toto has gone.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Maybe they should have offered Adrian Newey stock options and a salary. How will having so many board members improve the speed of the car? I do hope Mercedes and Hamilton/Rosberg win this year.
The best-laid plans of mice and men.
Joe – I hadn’t realised that Wolff had such a long relationship with Merc. Was the original intention, when he joined Williams, for him to create a link between Williams and Mercedes?
No
On a side note Joe,
With the rumour mill in full swing now, if Force Indian do a deal with Ferrari to bring in Jules Binachi and take Ferrari engines. Could this leave a gap with Merc that Williams could fill?
I’m not sure I understand why Williams would want Merc engines. When was the last Mercedes championship?
As you probably know, there’s lots of buzz implying the Merc will be the engine to have in 2014.
I did ask James Allen (who’s pushed this view as hard as anyone) what the data was, given that I’d heard basically nothing about the Ferrari or Renault engines. I wondered if customer teams had information from all 3 to draw conclusions from, but he said he was basing his view on mood within the paddock, or words to that effect.
Are you intending to suggest that you’re sceptical about this particular piece of rumour / belief / received wisdom?
I don’t know how anyone can say anything about the 2014 with any certainty. Who has seen the results of all of them on a dyne?
No-one.
This was exactly my point to James.
Time to bring Adrian Newey home sir Frank with a serious equity stake in the Williams group. Although Newey is on the engineering side I suspect he has been heavily involved and close enough to the management side to try his hand at it. New challenge for Adrian instead of the periodically speculated ‘americas cup yachts’ he mentioned previously.
1. sorts out engineering dept
2. oversees design of Championship contending car
3. evolves Williams non F1 business building up the group
4. gets wealthier due to growth of equity from the Williams group prospering
5. Legacy – Englishman resurrects the quintessentially British Team
Being a fan of the underdog I’d rather see this resurrection than the overkill dream team approach at Mercedes.
Do you really want a new challenge Mr Newey or more Red Bull cash?
Sure would be interesting for the sport. One can dream.
Newer is a great aerodynamicist but he is not famed for his management skills. All these teams need to be exactly that: teams.
One has to feel for sir Frank as his talent is poached or interfered with. To the spectator/fan the Wolff departure has the appearance of coming out of no where so he was likely unprepared for it? Going back to the drawing board must be demoralizing.
Any ideas on a good fit candidate to build and go forward rather than the expected slide all this disruption will possibly lead to?