Toto

The Mercedes team principal on selling motor racing to a new generation, becoming a social media meme — and how he engineered one of sport's great winning ...

I worked under Andrew Breitbart for just a few months, but it took years for his signature lesson to take root in me. Politics, the late, truly great.

Americans love entertainment, and OutKick happily cheers on the best new shows and films. Celebrities rallied behind the Defund the Police movement from the comfort of their multi-million-dollar mansions. They increasingly barked their marching orders at the people who made them rich and famous – audiences from both red and blue states. The deferential press gave them a pass. The site praises stars who make our lives a little easier, a bit sunnier. My personal awakening started at Breitbart News, but Hollywood, Inc. deserve some of the credit.

Wolff and other F1 bosses aren't convinced Andretti would add value to F1. The American dynasty ain't happy about it.

“In the end, it will be up to F1 and the FIA,” he told Racer. "But I don’t think added value can come from the nationality of a team. (Sarcasm.) Also, any new team would be ineligible to receive any share of FIA money for several years—just ask Haas. The way it stands, teams are angry that F1 will have more teams to share its money with, even though they are the ones getting the $200,000,000 and the new team won't actually take any of their money for a long time. In this case you say ‘Yes, for sure’, because it would add huge value to the paddock." No, Andretti wasn't referring to the Wolff's comments, but someone's tweet asking if "Wolff was too powerful for F1?" This sentiment has been widely shared by others, but Wolff's popularity and power within the F1 fraternity have exacerbated his position on the matter. The announcement was welcomed with open arms throughout the globe, especially in the U.S., where American fans hoped to have a team to support after Haas sold its soul to the Russians. Six months later, however, the process is still in question and current F1 team principals are less than enthused about letting the Italian-American family in.

Ex-F1 star Mario Andretti has taken a swipe at Toto Wolff, suggesting the Mercedes boss holds too much power and sway in the sport.

“You absolutely welcome manufacturers but the manufacturers come and go. “We're one of the teams that would be open for another manufacturer. “Manufacturers don’t depend on the sport – we do. That’s all we do. But I don't see Audi been a start-up team,” Andretti told MotorLAT. It's fine.

Mario Andretti agrees questions need to be asked about whether Mercedes' Toto Wolff is "too powerful" in Formula 1.

Responding to a tweet that asked is “Toto Wolff too powerful for F1? Is he? It’s need more competition and, if Liberty Media’s race into America is anything to go by, it needs another American team other than Haas and you do not get bigger in US motor sport than Andretti. And we don’t want to dilute that value by just adding teams.”

Well, Mario Andretti definitely thinks so. Since entering the championship with Williams, it seems Wolff has tried his absolute best to get every impressive F1 ...

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he also revealed himself to be Batman at this point… However, what all those fancy titles coupled with Mercedes’ level of success and the number of teams it supplies engines to actually means is that Wolff has a LOT of influence over what goes on in an F1 paddock, and that doesn’t sit right with Andretti. But is he too powerful?

Mario Andretti hits at Toto Wolff for his comments as he fronts the backlash faced by the American company attempting to enter F1.

He brought out the comparison when asked about Audi and Porsche becoming a part of F1. The proposition of another team joining the existing grid has faced plenty of retaliation. However, in recent months, the American company has proposed a new, 11th team join the fray.