Mercedes boss Toto Wolff makes his feelings known about the 'terrible guilt' from his childhood

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has opened up about his terrible childhood guilt, which stemmed from seeing his father struggle at a young age. The Austrian is now a billionaire, but life wasn't always as smooth for him, as he came from a humble upbringing.

His father had a transport company and was successful at a young age, but an untimely brain cancer shook the entire family. Wolff was just 8 years of age when his father was diagnosed with brain cancer and by the time he was 15, his father lost his life. From that point, his mother took over the responsibility for the family.

For Toto himself, the responsibility came much earlier than usual as he would have to help his mother and establish himself. On his recent appearance on the Armchair Podcast, the Austrian opened up and talked about the terrible guilt he felt, as during his childhood he didn't have a normal relationship with his father. He said:

"My Dad had a transport company. He was successful at a young age, but then he lost all of it. He had brain cancer when I was eight. It started benign and got worse to the point it was incurable. It was struggle for him because he was operated on so much that it changed his personality and when a son is in his teenage years, you need your dad - to love, to look up to, to hate, to fight. There is a terrible guilt.”

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Mercedes's boss opens up on being driven by anger early in his career

Toto Wolff's stint in F1 didn't begin with Mercedes, as before that he was a part of Williams. Even before he became a part of the sport, he was already a successful businessman who had established himself.

Talking about the early years of his career, the Mercedes boss opened up on how he was driven by anger and had a list of people who had let his father down. He said:

“In the early years of my professional life, I was driven by anger, for all the people who let my dad down. At the beginning I wanted to show them. There was a list of actual people who didn’t respect my father when my dad got ill that I took so much responsibility on for my sister – it made me want to be an adult.”

At Mercedes now, Toto Wolff has established himself as a part owner and someone who makes all the key decisions. It is this kind of role that has seen him grow and become such a big player in the F1 paddock.