沃尔夫：马尔多纳多胜仗助我加盟梅赛德斯
托托·沃尔夫透露，2012年帕斯托尔·马尔多纳多为威廉姆斯意外赢得西班牙大奖赛胜利，促成了他与梅赛德斯高层的对话，并帮助他获得梅赛德斯职位。
托托·沃尔夫揭示了威廉姆斯那场意外胜利如何帮助他获得梅赛德斯职位
托托·沃尔夫透露，帕斯托尔·马尔多纳多2012年西班牙大奖赛的意外胜利，如何促成了一场与梅赛德斯高层的对话，这场对话颇具揭示性
梅赛德斯负责人托托·沃尔夫透露，他曾对帕斯托尔·马尔多纳多的一句调侃帮助他获得了在车队的位置；这位奥地利商人还将梅赛德斯明星车手与当时的威廉姆斯车手作了比较。
2012年，沃尔夫是威廉姆斯的股东和高管，当时马尔多纳多在西班牙大奖赛上意外夺冠。那时，梅赛德斯自2010年以厂队身份回归以来只赢过一场，即该赛季早些时候尼科·罗斯伯格在中国站的胜利。
沃尔夫在Stripe联合创始人约翰·科利森主持的Cheeky Pint播客中表示，随威廉姆斯车队夺冠后，他接到了梅赛德斯母公司的电话。
“其中一位董事会成员找到我，邀请我去斯图加特，他说：‘你的私人小车队怎么能赢下一场比赛，而我们梅赛德斯却做不到比这更好？’”沃尔夫说。
在获准查看车队的数据后，沃尔夫问董事会对其F1项目的期望是什么。答案是世界冠军，这位奥地利人告诉他们，他们的雄心与车队的支出并不匹配。
“我说：‘好吧，那我们当中有一个是错的，因为我用的是同样的预算，而我想的是进入前六名。’他们说：‘不，预算不一样。你看，我们多花了1亿。’
“我说，‘是啊，你们在迈克尔·舒马赫和尼科·罗斯伯格身上花了那1亿，我这儿有个来自委内瑞拉的付费车手，’顺便说一句，他赢了那场比赛，就是帕斯托。‘这就是主要区别。’他们完全不喜欢那种局面。我说，‘我只是个传话的，我要回威廉姆斯了。’”
马尔多纳多从委内瑞拉为威廉姆斯带来了大量赞助，他在巴塞罗那从杆位发车击败费尔南多·阿隆索夺冠。这仍然是他F1生涯唯一一场大奖赛胜利。
梅赛德斯后来带着一份邀约回来了。
“最终，他们回来说，‘我们认为我们的模式，即由一家企业运营F1车队，行不通，因为它需要更多由企业家主导，你需要被授权当场做决定，我们想让你来运营这个。’”
沃尔夫表示，他最初拒绝了这一职位，因为他是威廉姆斯的股东，但梅赛德斯提出帮助他转而入股该车队。
他于2013年初加入梅赛德斯，随后该车队从2014年到2021年连续八次赢得车队总冠军。
英文原文
Toto Wolff reveals how Williams' surprise victory helped him secure Mercedes role
Toto Wolff has revealed how Pastor Maldonado's surprise 2012 Spanish Grand Prix victory led to a revealing conversation with Mercedes executives
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff revealed a jibe at Pastor Maldonado that helped him get his place on the team, as the Austrian businessman gave a comparison between the star Mercedes drivers and the then-Williams driver.
Wolff was a shareholder and executive at Williams in 2012, when Maldonado took a surprising victory in the Spanish Grand Prix. At the time, Mercedes had won just once since returning as a works team in 2010, with Nico Rosberg’s victory in China earlier that season.
Speaking on the Cheeky Pint podcast with Stripe co-founder John Collison, Wolff said that the win with Williams was followed by a call from the Mercedes parent company.
“One of the board members approached me and invited me to Stuttgart, and he said, ‘How can it be that your private little team can win a race, and we, Mercedes, we can’t do any better than that?’” Wolff said.
After being given access to the team’s figures, Wolff asked the board what it expected from its F1 programme. The answer was world championships, and the Austrian told them their ambitions did not match the team’s spending.
“I said, ‘OK, then one of us is wrong because I’m working on the same budgets, and I’m thinking about finishing in the top six.’ They said, ‘No, it’s not the same budget. Look, we spend 100 million more.’
“I said, ‘Yeah, those 100 millions you spend on Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, I have a pay driver from Venezuela,’ who won the race, by the way, Pastor. ‘That’s the main difference.’ They didn’t like that situation at all. I said, ‘I’m just a messenger, and I’m going to go back to Williams.’”
Maldonado, who brought substantial backing from Venezuela to Williams, beat Fernando Alonso to win in Barcelona from pole. It remained the only grand prix victory of his F1 career.
Mercedes later returned with an offer.
“Eventually, they came back and said, ‘We think our model, a corporate running a Formula 1 team, doesn’t function, because it needs to be much more entrepreneurially led, you need to be empowered to make decisions on the spot, and we want you to run this.’”
Wolff said he initially turned the role down because he was a shareholder in Williams, but Mercedes offered to help him buy into the team instead.
He joined Mercedes at the start of 2013, and the team went on to win eight consecutive constructors’ championships from 2014 to 2021.
Motorsport.com ·
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