Motorsport was not Wolff's intention: 'I started learning banking'

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says a career in motorsport was not at all a certainty for him. The team boss of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton first entered a completely different world. Only when a friend invited Wolff did he want to get his hands on motorsport.

"I started learning about banking, investment banking and the markets and the next dream began. It was very difficult because I went into an internship in a bank in Warsaw - my mother's Polish - and I remember it was so bad. It was a hot summer, and my friends were on holiday or racing cars and I was working in there," Wolff told BBC Radio 4 in conversation .

How did Wolff get into motor racing?

"A friend invited us to watch him race Formula 3," says the Austrian. "I ended up on the track and... walking onto the grid, this is where [I felt] this massive explosion within me and it was clear - this is what I wanted to do," said the 51-year-old Wolff.

In the current Formula 1 season, Wolff and Hamilton are a lot less dominant than in previous years. Indeed, Red Bull Racing has more than double Mercedes' points. The Mercedes team boss previously made the comparison between a Formula 1 car and a Formula 2 car when it came to the difference with Red Bull.