From conversations in the kitchen to claims he disappears on drivers in the midst of negotiations, Toto Wolff is adamant he’s always “fair” as he puts himself in the “other person’s shoes”.

Mercedes’ team principal and CEO since 2013, it seems Wolff has contrasting approaches to his contract negotiations with his drivers.

Toto Wolff: I give my soul to the other side…

With Mercedes’ six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton it was kitchen talks in hi Oxfordshire home that led to Briton staying on after 2016 when his team-mate Nico Rosberg beat him to the World title.

“We were in my kitchen. I said to him, and Susie didn’t much like this analogy, that even though Susie and I might disagree about something, it would never come into my mind to divorce. ‘And it’s the same with you Lewis,’ I said,” Wolff told The Times.

“‘I don’t want a divorce. You’re the best driver. I want you in our car and we want to provide you with the best car’.

“e kind of went into this discussion at loggerheads and then, after four or five hours in the kitchen, we found ourselves on a totally different level.”

However, Rosberg, who raced for Mercedes from 2010 to 2016 when he abruptly retired from the sport after winning the World title, saw a different side to the Austrian’s negotiating tactics.

“Toto’s horrible to negotiate with,” he told Sky F1 at Spa. “Because his tactic is to disappear.”

A tactic that current driver George Russell could be experiencing, according to Rosberg.

“Like George now,” he added, “he’s trying to get hold of him, Toto will disappear.”

And where is he?

Holidaying alongside his much-wanted target, Max Verstappen, in Sardinia.

After doctored images appeared on social media of the two meeting up ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, this time sources close to the situation have indicated that the circulating images, as can be viewed below as on AutoSprint’s own social media post, are authentic.

But while a holiday could just be a holiday, Wolff and Verstappen spending time together could be seen as mind games in Russell’s Mercedes negotiations.

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Wolff, though, is adamant he doesn’t play it like that.

“No, I think I’m fair,” he told formula.hu.

“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?

“I will consider this and try to strike the right balance, but obviously there are times when both sides want to optimise this and that, and that can make the situation complicated.”

A situation that became very complicated during his 12 years as Hamilton’s team principal.

As their relationship moved beyond team principal and driver into true friendship, Wolff admits that made their negotiations more difficult as suddenly good friends had to hash out finer points, including money.

“It always makes the situation more complicated when you negotiate with a person who is your ally,” Wolff explained. “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.

“Why? Because in that situation, you may not agree. In the end, we made a change and brought in someone to do this task, so the situation was solved in a few days. That’s why it’s always going to be complicated with all the drivers.

“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.”

Russell has yet to officially be confirmed as an F1 2026 Mercedes driver, although PlanetF1. com understands it is only a matter of time.

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