Toto Wolff ditched the Mexico City Grand Prix to support his wife, Susie. The Mercedes F1 boss swapped the pits of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday for a bustling Lyceum Theatre in London on Monday instead.
It comes as a rare decision for the 53-year-old, who is spotted at practically every Formula 1 event that the season has to offer. However, supporting his wife’s newly-released memoir, Driven, was more important – a clear message that the Austrian puts family first.
Around 2,000 inside the venue hung on Susie’s every word, given her remarkable journey from the Scottish Highlands to the pinnacle of motorsport. While Wolff had also attented the Autosport Business Exchange in New York last week.
After kicking off her career in karting at the age of eight, Susie graduated to single-seat racing in 2001 with Formula Renault, spending three years with the promotion before advancing to Formula 3 with Alan Docking Racing in the Championship class. Her first and only season was heavily disrupted by an ankle injury sustained in the winter, however.
Between 2006 and 2012, the now 42-year-old competed in DTM, initially with Mucke Motorsport before switching to Persson two years in. From there, she joined Williams as a development driver in F1.
With the team, she became the first woman to participate in a F1 weekend since 1992 at the 2014 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, following on from Giovanna Amati, who made three unsuccessful qualification attempts of her own. She retired from Formula 1 in 2015, before teaming up with Mercedes as a brand ambassador the following year, a role she still holds to this day.
Elsewhere, Susie has worked as a Team Principal for Venturi Racing in Formula E, and is the managing director of all-female racing series, F1 Academy. While he wasn’t present at the Mexico City GP, Wolff will certainly have kept a close eye on how his team performed at the event.
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It was a less than fruitful outing for Mercedes on the face of things, with Kimi Antonelli finishing a place ahead of George Russell on Sunday in sixth-place. Lando Norris ultimately won the race for McLaren, while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking the other spots on the podium.
As a result, Russell heads into the final four races at fourth in the Drivers’ standings with 258 points, 99 shy of league leader Norris. Antonelli, meanwhile, sits seventh with just 97 points to show for his efforts.
In the Constructors’ standings, Mercedes are third at the time of writing with 355 points, a point shy of Ferrari. However, McLaren dominate the table at present, with 713 points from 13 wins and 30 podiums.