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1 episodes · 25 quoted claims
Toto Wolff says Mercedes can spot potential professional racing drivers in karting, for example when an eight-year-old beats ten-year-olds.
“if someone that's eight years old beats the ones that are ten in that group, you can have those very early signs of whether that kid has the potential”
Wolff says about 150 Mercedes F1 staff travel to races, 90 of them technical or operational, out of roughly 2,500 employees.
“it's about 150 people to go to the tracks including marketing so it's 90 technical operational people but we are two and a half thousand”
Wolff says the Formula 1 cost cap, which counts engineering resources, is a little over $200 million a year.
“So every resource that you deploy into engineering is being counted for in the cost cap, which is 200 and a bit $1 million a year.”
Wolff says Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull were the only teams winning races, which led Formula 1 to introduce equal budgets through the cost cap.
“only these three teams actually won races. So Formula One said we want everybody to compete on the same budgets.”
Wolff recalls that Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey told teams the cost cap was needed to protect them from themselves.
“Chase Carrick, who was the CEO, said, we need to protect you from yourselves.”
Wolff says Mercedes' DAS steering system, which let drivers push and pull the wheel, created a tow effect that heated the front tyres.
“What it did is we were able to turn, we created a tow effect, which helped us to heat up the surfaces of the tires by basically dragging them on.”
Wolff says UK contracts can prevent staff moving to another team for up to 12 months.
“with our contractual frameworks and in the UK, you can do it up to 12 months”
Wolff says the legal limit on blocking a staff member from joining another team is three months in Switzerland.
“But there are countries like Switzerland, for example, where it's three months.”
Wolff says Germany's Neuer Markt was the equivalent of the Nasdaq during the dot-com boom, with even looser rules for listing companies.
“Then in Germany, it was the Neumarkt, which was the equivalent, but even crazier in terms of process of being able to list.”
Wolff says the free SMS website SMS.at was used by about 2 million of Austria's roughly 9 million people.
“And Austria back then had around 9 million people and 2 million were using this because SMS were expensive.”
Wolff says SMS.at, which began as an unincorporated project run by a teenager in Graz, was sold to T-Mobile for 250 million within two years.
“within two years, that non-existent company was sold for 250 million to T-Mobile”
Wolff says that after a warning from his CFO, he exited all nine of his dot-com investments between late 1999 and 2000 before the market collapsed.
“and we decided to exit all of them and that was started end of 99 and went all through 2000”
Wolff says Daimler bought the Brawn team, which won the 2009 championship, expecting Mercedes to become dominant in Formula 1.
“they bought a small team, Brown, that won the championship in 2009, expecting it to be a dominant force in Formula One.”
Wolff says the Mercedes works team won only one race between taking over Brawn and 2013.
“year after year the results were really not satisfactory and until 2013 they won a single race only”
Wolff says Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos offered to commit $600 million in sponsorship in exchange for a stake in the Mercedes F1 team just before COVID.
“Jim said, I'm prepared to commit $600 million as a sponsorship if I can have a stake in the team.”
Wolff says that after the Ineos deal, he, Mercedes and Ineos each held one-third of the team.
“I increased my stake a little bit, and then we were all one-third.”
Wolff says Formula 1 has 11 teams and the rules would allow a 12th, but nobody is keen to add one.
“in F1 there's just 11 of us and you could potentially have another 12 one that's within the regs but nobody's really keen”
Wolff says Mercedes' F1 business earns an operating margin above 30% and pays dividends.
“in our business, more than 30 % EBIT margin. We are distributing dividends.”
Wolff says the Mercedes F1 team generates around $1 billion in revenue with a profit margin of about 30%.
“we're generating around a billion dollar in revenue and 30 % profit margin”
Wolff says Williams went public and it was not a success, partly because the team effectively had to report results after each race.
“we went public with Williams and that was not a success because in a way, you know, you're reporting 20 times a year with each of the races.”
Wolff says Ferrari and Mercedes chose not to take part in the first series of Netflix's Drive to Survive.
“So Ferrari and Mercedes decided not to participate in Series 1.”
Wolff says 42% of Formula 1 fans are female and that young women aged about 15 to 25 are the fastest-growing group.
“and we have 42 % female fans, which is an awesome...”
Wolff says the Concorde Agreement, which ties together Formula 1, the FIA and the teams, is named after the Place de la Concorde in Paris where it was signed.
“the famous Concord Agreement because it was signed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris many, many tens of years before.”
Wolff says the FIA, transcribed here as 'DFA', granted Formula One its commercial rights in a 100-year agreement.
“DFA is also the one that granted the rights to Formula One in a 100-year agreement”
Wolff says the Madrid circuit is expected to change its layout for the following year to provide more straights, because it is not a permanent track.
“And for next year already, I think they're going to change the layout of the track because it's not a permanent track to provide more straights.”