Toto Wolff’s dilemma: when your customers keep stealing the spotlight
Toto Wolff has rarely looked more conflicted. On one side of the garage, George Russell dragged a sparkling P2 out of Baku while Kimi Antonelli calmly banked P4 — enough to hoist Mercedes back ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings. On the other, a McLaren outfit powered by Stuttgart’s finest is easing toward a second straight team title, while Williams — yes, Williams — just parked Carlos Sainz on the podium and sailed beyond the 100-point mark.
It’s great for the three-pointed star. It’s also awkward.
This is the new reality for Mercedes: their engines sit in the fastest car in Formula 1, and it’s orange. McLaren turned the old wisdom on its head in 2024 by beating the works team to the crown as a customer. In 2025, they’re doubling down. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are scrapping over the big trophy, and Max Verstappen has elbowed back into the conversation after consecutive wins at Monza and Baku. Meanwhile, Williams’ resurgence has real teeth. Sainz’s run to third in Azerbaijan didn’t just look good on a highlight reel; it underlined a step change that’s pushed the team to fifth in the table with seven rounds still to play.
Wolff has to wear two hats at once: guardian of the Mercedes-AMG works squad and steward of the Mercedes-Benz power unit business. After Baku, he was asked whether a strong 2026 engine could end up lifting his customers right into his mirrors.
“Or Alpine. You never know,” he shot back, a nudge to the fact Mercedes will power McLaren, Williams and Alpine when the new rules land.
Then came the honesty. “I’m in two minds. First of all, we represent Mercedes‑Benz, and I’d rather have a customer team with Mercedes‑Benz engines winning than any other manufacturer. But on the other side, I’m thinking, hopefully they’re not harming us, our campaign, too much. So, I’m happy for them and happy for the brand.”
That’s the tightrope. The engine department wants to sell the fastest, most efficient power unit in the field; the race team wants it all for itself. For 2026, both sides are sharpening their knives. The technical reset — new chassis, new aero constraints, new hybrid balance — will scramble the running order. The last time F1 changed engine regs in a major way, in 2014, Mercedes went on a generational tear. Little wonder the paddock suspects they’ll turn up well-armed again.
But this is no longer the era where a works team automatically dominates its own stable. McLaren has already torn up that script. Williams is now fit enough to punish any off-week. Alpine will arrive as a fresh variable. It sets up an intrigue beyond the usual factory-versus-factory fight: an intra-family contest, all wearing the same badge on the engine cover.
Wolff sees the upside. Customer success is a rolling advertisement for the product that underwrites the whole racing program. Beating Red Bull power, Ferrari power, Honda power — that pays. But there’s a sting when your own guys aren’t the ones climbing the top step.
He can still joke about it, for now. “On the other side, I’d like to take the engines away next year,” he laughed. “Maybe they fail a few times!”
No one believes he means it, least of all his customers. The politics of power in modern F1 are more delicate than that, and the contracts tighter. And the works team isn’t exactly off the pace: Russell’s Baku podium and Antonelli’s assured fourth showed enough underlying speed to justify Wolff’s grin as he left the pit wall. There are upgrades in the pipeline, momentum to preserve, and a constructors’ runner-up spot to defend before anyone even whispers about 2026.
Still, it’s hard to shake how different the grid feels heading into a rule change. A decade ago, the line of force ran from Brackley to everyone else. Now it’s a web: McLaren’s form is relentless, Williams keeps landing punches, and Mercedes has a duo capable of bagging heavy points most weekends. The badges might match, but the ambitions do not.
That’s the theatre Wolff has invited. If Mercedes builds the benchmark power unit again, the best Mercedes-powered team in 2026 may not be the one based in Brackley. And if it is, they’ll have earned it the hard way — by beating the customers they themselves made dangerous.
