Driven : The Inspirational Memoir From Formula One Trailblazer and Managing Director of F1 Academy (2025) by Wolff Susie

Author:Wolff, Susie [Wolff, Susie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Back from Australia, I was emailing with my engineer about preparing for the first race weekend when a Facebook notification pinged on my laptop. A friend request had come in from someone I didn’t know. I was about to disregard it until a message appeared.

You don’t know me but I’m a friend of Toto Wolff.

He had my attention. I accepted the friend request and then another message arrived.

I’m sitting with Toto right now, we’re in Miami and I’ve persuaded him to join Facebook.

Then a Facebook request arrived from Toto, with a message:

I’m new to all of this, am not entirely convinced.

I looked at his page. His status was single. I think your page looks good, I replied, but you need to get all your details right. It says you’re single.

I am single now.

I stopped in my tracks. Miss Austria was gone. I raised an eyebrow.

At races, I’d seen Toto around, but we had never connected, never said more than a few polite words to each other. In my head, he was with Miss Austria and very much off my radar. I had found out he had raced successfully himself and was now managing young drivers, one of them being a teammate of mine. He had also invested in HWA, the company building and running the DTM cars for Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, but I knew nothing of the details.

A week later, I flew to a three-day pre-season test. It was during one of the lunch breaks that Hans-Jürgen Mattheis, the team manager, walked in. His expression gave nothing away at first, but then he informed us that Toto Wolff had been in a serious accident while trying to break the lap record at the Nürburgring. Only afterwards did I realise how narrowly he’d escaped. The car had hit the barrier at over 290kph, spun through 180 degrees, and ricocheted across the track, slamming into steel guardrails with such force that the impact tore nearly every bolt from the seat.

My heart raced. Hans-Jürgen turned to Gary Paffett, the de facto team leader, and suggested one of the drivers should call Toto to wish him a speedy recovery. Gary barely missed a beat before glancing at me.

Yeah, good idea. Susie, you do it.

Hans-Jürgen nodded.

Okay, Susie, I’ll send you his contact details.

And just like that, I had his number and a reason to call.

When I got back from the test, I made sure to find the right moment and thought through my opening words. I took a breath and dialled his number.

Hi, Toto. It’s Susie Stoddart. We heard about your crash and wanted to wish you a speedy recovery. We’re all thinking of you . . .

There was the briefest pause before he answered.

That’s so nice of you to call.

He asked me about the DTM car, how it was to drive, my thoughts on the upcoming season. He told me about the record attempt – how the tyre blew, how he’d lost his sense of smell, how bad his back was. We laughed. It felt natural, effortless and I didn’t want the call to end.

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