Wolff Responds to Brutal Rosberg Attack – Toto Wolff is now the longest serving Formula One team principal since the abrupt[t departure last month of Red Bull’s Christian Horner. The Austrian joined Mercedes late in the rebuild of the Brackley team, which Ross Brawn and Bob Bell had been quietly building up for the big 2014 regulation changes.
In his first season as team principal, Wolff oversaw a double championship winning year with Lewis Hamilton collecting his second drivers’ title and the team their first ever constructors’ championship. The Austrian was to experience unpredicted success over almost a decade, with Mercedes record eight consecutive constructor titles along with all seven driver titles before the epic 2021 season.
Over the years the Lewis Hamilton contract renewal process became one of significant interest. Wolff wold typically drag his heels until late autumn before the pair would emerge proudly announcing their continued partnership. In recent years Wolff developed a new tactic with his drivers, often described as a “multi-year deal” when in fact it was a “one plus one” arrangement.
The dreaded “multi-year” contract
Typically this represented one guaranteed year for the driver and an option for either or both parties to state they wished to continue into a second year under the arrangement. This became the tipping point for Lewis Hamilton when he came to sign his last deal with the silver arrows. The British driver wanted a guaranteed driving contract of at least two years in length and also the role for ten years as a Mercedes ambassador.
So when the dreaded “multi-year” contract between Mercedes and Hamilton was made public late in 2023, he was heard to say off cuff, “This won’t be my last driver contract.” Oy appeared the ground had been laid for Lewis to see if he cold ply his trade elsewhere.
Nico Rosberg who defeated his team mate Hamilton in the 2016 F1 drivers title race, described the nature of his discussions and contract negotiations with Wolff as “horrible.” Speaking to Sky F1 before the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, the German said: “Toto’s horrible to negotiate with, because his tactic is to disappear,” Rosberg revealed, the 2016 World Champion having served as a Sky F1 pundit in Belgium.
Rosberg accuses Wolff
“So when you try… like George is now, he’s trying to get hold of him, Toto will disappear. George will be trying to write Toto to get him [to get] a move on, or whatever, and Toto disappears. By the way, this is not a fact; this is just me making it up. But I remember from my time that was his style, just like disappearing, not answering, being hard to reach… and it’s horrible, because you’re like, ‘come on!’ You have nothing, you have no chance… do whatever you can; you need to find a way to cross paths.”
And where is the elusive Wolff this summer as Russell seeks to close out negotiations which will see him continue with Mercedes next season? Possibly moored next to his prime target driver, Max Verstappen in Sardinia. During the mini break before the Belgian Grand Prix, pictures circulated on social media showing the two together in the Mediterranean. These were ultimately proven to be fake, but now the F1 summer break is in full swing, new image have appeared of the pair together on holiday but from an authoritative source, namely Autosprint.
Whilst the holiday could be just that, some down time, yet for Wolff there has to be an element of mind games involved given Russell’s situation. Speaking to formula.hu, Toto denies he plays games which are inappropriate. “No, I think I’m fair,” he said. “I think we should always put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. So I give my soul to the other side and think, if I were him, what would I want to achieve? Then I ask myself, what is fair in this situation? What do I think would be the right thing to do?
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Friendship with Hamilton made talks tougher
The Mercedes boss goes on to admit that striking the right balance between both parties interests at times, “can make the situation complicated.” Something which happened more frequently in the later part of Hamilton’s 12 years with the team. The relationship ship over time evolved from merely a boss and his employee to one of friendship, Wolff reveals, which of course when thrashing out monetary details is all the more tricky.
“It always makes the situation more complicated when you negotiate with a person who is your ally,” Wolff explains. “Someone whose goals are very close to yours. Lewis and me, for example, have always had a problem with that. We were best friends for two and a half years, we agreed one hundred per cent, we shared our private lives and everything else. Then came the two-month period of negotiations. We both hated it.”
This apparently led to the process being long and drawn out, so latterly Wolff brought in someone who could negotiate on his behalf, even acting as the ‘love juice’ between the parties which facilitated a resolution “in a few days.”
Russell wats commitment from Mercedes
“On the one hand, you want to maintain a good relationship. On the other hand, sometimes the negotiations are tough and it’s difficult when the other party is an emotional athlete and not someone who deals with it every day,” Wolff concludes.
Unlike with Hamilton’s final deal, the task ahead of George Russell is simple. He wants commitment from his boss to a contract more than a “one plus one” but is in no rush to put pen to paper as he explained last time out in Hungary. “I’ve waited so long and I think now I want to get through this weekend, I want to go on holiday next week and enjoy the break, and there is no time pressure on my side, there’s no time pressure from the team side. So whenever we come to an agreement, we’ll get it done, but it’s got to be right both ways.”
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Verstappen waiting in the wings
Tough talk indeed, but George Russell knows depending on how well Mercedes do in solving the conundrum of the all new 2026 regulations, Max Verstappen will be waiting in the wings should the Brackley squad come out ahead of the field. After months of refusing to comment on whether he would remain a Red Bull, the world champion made his position clear in Budapest saying, “And for me, it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.”
When asked to confirm whether his commitment to Red Bull extended beyond 2026 and whether next year the cycle of “Max to Mercedes” reports would return, he replied quizzically: ”I don’t know. If you ask me that question next year, then yes, we will have that speculation!”
Despite his sterling work for the team, Kimi Antonelli is where Mercedes have placed their future bets. And despite George closing in on third place in the drivers’ championship and being the team’s best performer by far, it wold be Antonelli who partners any incoming Verstappen, not Russell. Its almost impossible to see how he can get anything but the dreaded “one plus one” Wolff style contract and with the remainder of the top seats taken in 2026, Russell will have no choice but to accept the offer.
Sepang begs for mercy, but F1 price rockets
Formula 1 has undergone a seismic shift under Liberty Media. Once the playground of traditional European venues, the calendar is now a patchwork of heritage tracks clinging on and new glitzy arrivals making their debut. Las Vegas, Miami and soon Madrid have muscled in, while Spa, once unthinkable to drop, has been forced onto a rotational basis under its new contract.
The message from F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali is unambiguous: history and passion alone do not buy you a slot on theF1 calendar. A Grand Prix must be commercially viable, politically supported, and ideally backed by a city prepared to turn itself into a festival ground.
Yet the door is not completely closed for former hosts. Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, which staged Grands Prix from 1999 to 2017, has emerged as a candidate for a comeback. And unlike some of the heritage venues fighting for survival, Sepang boasts two critical advantages—it has a track layout loved by drivers and fans alike, and a history of producing some of the most dramatic races of the modern era…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
