Toto Wolff has led Mercedes to an unprecedented run of success in Formula One. Since joining the team in 2013 and becoming the boss in 2014, he’s guided Mercedes to seven consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships from 2014 to 2020. 

In an extensive interview with the-race.com, the 49-year-old Austrian spoke about a number of topics. He believes integrity is massively important and has no problem cutting people off if they don’t have it when he speaks to them. 

“Integrity in a world where everything is transparent means you’re staying true to your own values,” he said. “And we don’t deal in lies here, to repeat a very famous sentence of Kipling’s poem. 

“There’s just no millimetre of margin for a lack of integrity. And it’s so important to me that if somebody disrespects integrity when dealing with me, I will break with this person, no matter what.” 

Asked by the race if dishonesty is something he takes personally from people in F1, Wolff’s answer is emphatic.  

“It is,” Wolff says. “Because I’m passionate about the sport and the values of the sport. It’s a competition that should be carried out on fair grounds. 

“And there are some that have lost my respect forever over the last few years, not [from] a particular incident. And others that I see through their manipulative, amateur Machiavellian behaviour. 

“I see the smiles that have hatred or negativity towards us. And then there’s people within the industry that I respect a lot, and I have friendships with them. They try to do the best for the sport, whilst maintaining a neutral position to all teams. 

“They don’t ask anybody to be biased to Mercedes, just to do the best for the sport because we all benefit from a good sport. We share the revenues and the better the show is the better the sport. 

“That’s why, in a way, I take it personally because I want to protect the organisation. But on the other side, the case studies of individuals that are around the paddock, it’s just very interesting for me to see that. 

“They speak about Formula 1 as a shark tank. Most of them are goldfishes that believe they are sharks. And there’s some baby sharks also.” 

The Austrian also feels his team is getting targeted because of their dominance of the sport in the last seven years.  

Qualifying modes got banned during 2020, although this didn’t affect them as they cruised towards the championship. The trimming of rear downforce on safety grounds for 2021 has seriously affected them on the basis of what we’ve seen so far, however.  

“There are areas where I see bias against Mercedes,” Wolff said. “And here in the group we discuss, is it a pure bias that somebody wants to just penalise us in a way which sometimes is triggered by other teams, or is this something that is really important for the sport? 

“We have even accepted some of the biases, because we knew about them. We took the conscious decision to accept it. But then there are clear, obvious actions against the team with the only aim to hurt us. And I will be always fighting this.” 

Speaking about balance of performance and reverse grid races, Wolff says he would have voted against these proposals, even if he was leading Williams. 

“I would have voted against balance of performance and reverse grids even if I were running Williams,” Wolff insists. 

“I don’t want to have any gift. I think this should be a fair competition, may the best man win. It’s always been the best man and best machine, and everything else is just a dilution of the sport and the values of the sport. 

“Yes, we are creating entertainment. That’s what it is. But the entertainment is there because our spectators know that this is a real competition out there. Not manipulated towards more variability. And I believe that we need to stay true to these values.” 

In a separate interview with OE24, Wolff gave a brutal response when he asked about Zak Brown’s comments; the American suggested he expects a Verstappen and Russell to be the driver line-up at Mercedes next year. 

“Brown is like Christian Horner,” said Wolff. “They just spread sh*t. I think Zak wanted to give Christian one with it. I don’t care.”