Toto Wolff has candidly discussed three of his most intriguing relationships in Formula 1 - with Lewis Hamilton, his Austrian counterpart Dr Helmut Marko, and Max Verstappen's father Jos.
The relationship between the Mercedes boss and Hamilton has been notably tense in 2024, amidst wild sabotage theories following the seven-time world champion's unexpected and impending move to Ferrari for the next season.
"What was painful is that I didn't have time to react," Wolff said, referring to the moment he learned of Hamilton's decision.
"It was actually the same day as the announcement. It was clear that it leaked from Ferrari. It all happened on the same day," he explained to Sky Deutschland.
Wolff mentioned that he anticipated Hamilton's last contract extension might lead to a team change, but the suddenness of the news "did not give me enough time to do some stakeholder management, to call our sponsors and shareholders to explain what was going on."
"But I think of the motto 'work hard, forgive quickly, apologise if you're wrong'. And the personal relationship with Lewis certainly doesn't suffer," Wolff stated. "I've come to terms with his choice now."
In another interview with Osterreich newspaper, Wolff strongly denied accusations from a recently leaked sabotage email, claiming he is being "vindictive" in his 2024 interactions with Hamilton.
"I am certainly not that," Wolff insisted. "On the contrary, I am for fairness and I fight for fairness. And I speak to Lewis every day."
"He thinks we should take out the negativity as well. He has also experienced much worse abuse before and thinks we should ignore it," Wolff added.
Another intriguing relationship for Wolff has been with Dr Helmut Marko, his counterpart at Red Bull Racing.
Wolff, 52, admits he has become closer to Marko, 81, amid the ongoing power struggles and conflicts at Red Bull this year.
"But we talk just as much or as little as we did in the past," Wolff smiled.
"What I can see is that the situation there is affecting him - this team no longer has the identity it used to have. I think they wanted this (Christian) Horner story to be handled the way it probably should have been handled - and that didn't happen."
Wolff has also been actively courting Max Verstappen for a potential team switch, which has brought him into closer contact with Max's father, Jos.
"Jos and I are on the same wavelength and have always had a good relationship," Wolff insists.
"It was never the case that we didn't have the same mindset. We just had different views and perspectives," he added. body check tags ::
