Wolff’s Superpower: “Dark Moments, More Than 300 Hours at the Psychologist”

Toto the ‘survivor’

A self-made man who owns a third of the Mercedes F1 team: Toto Wolff has come a long way during his career, but he has made no secret of the fact that it hasn’t all been a bed of roses. The Mercedes number one has repeatedly stressed that the pressures placed on him by F1 are nothing compared to the real difficult moments he had to face when he was just a teenager – the loss of his father and financial difficulties – and as a guest of Martin Brundle on Sky Sports F1 UK He also talked about how he dealt with the mental problems he had to deal with later.

“I struggled a lot with mental health, for months I was unable to think clearly, but I realized that this has many benefits – the words of Toto Wolff – I call it a superpowerthat’s the hope I want to give to people who have psychological problems. When I felt really bad, I thought: ‘That person is not going through the problems I am going through mentally’, and that’s why they can be more successful. When I sold my business I moved to Monaco, I was almost 20 years old and there was a Grand Prix. There was a party and I was there as a guest and I saw these very successful people partying and I thought: ‘they don’t suffer like I do, that’s why they are successful’. 20 years later I never imagined that I would be beating their records with Mercedes. What I mean is that with this superpower, when you struggle, you are a sensitive person, and that can be negative or very positive. Some of the strengths come from the ability to read the situation, to understand a person and see through it, to tell it like it is when it’s necessary. I usually have a sense of what people need to reach their potential.”

To reach his ‘superpower’ Toto Wolff turned to specialists in his darkest moments: “I have always sought help. I have always asked questions since I was very young. Some days were so bad that they pushed me to go to a psychologist. I probably did more than 300 or 350 hours of sessions. Of course my wife Susie has been a rock for me when I wasn’t. Stress is my comfort zone. I try to solve problems and I never give up even though I’ve been defeated hundreds of times. In a way I was built for the hardest days because I’ve been through much worse.”