Good morning. Peter Vanham here from a rainy Geneva.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 CEO who won eight consecutive Formula One constructor titles, has a message for the German car industry that's increasingly facing Chinese competition and struggling with electrification: “With a changing environment, you have to adjust direction,” he told me during the F1 mini break. “You have to have agility, based on what the market says."
Wolff knows a thing or two about changing course. After working in venture capital for the first half of his career, he joined Mercedes in 2013. After his arrival, the team went on an unprecedented winning streak that lasted from 2014 to 2021. Since 2022, however, his Mercedes F1 team has fallen behind rivals Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.
