Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was fed up with questions from white men in a press conference (Image: Getty)
chief was left unhappy with the organisation of the team principal’s press conference at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after asking why no women were allowed to pose questions.
Wolff was chosen to field questions from the press, along with team principal Oliver Oakes and boss Fred Vasseur, in the team bosses’ press conference in Las Vegas.
The trio had answered questions on a range of topics from several reporters on the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, the new race director and ‘ failure to give a car capable of challenging for the title.
While one would’ve assumed Wolff could get irritated with any of the aforementioned questions, the Austrian appeared to take issue with the male-dominated audience in the news conference.
When a question arrived from a male reporter in the written press section of the press conference, Wolff told the moderators: “You need to be more diverse and give the ladies the microphone also. Sorry. Not only white men.”
Despite that, Wolff went on to answer questions from a few more male journalists, before one female reporter joked “finally, the woman!” when the microphone reached her.
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Toto Wolff is married to former racer Susie Wolff, who is now F1 Academy managing director (Image: Getty)
She quizzed Wolff on the possibility of an 11th team in F1 and the executive said it would be “different story” if General Motors entered the sport.
Wolff’s advocacy for female representation in the media is consistent with his views on F1’s major problem, as the 51-year-old has been clear about improving gender diversity in motorsport.
Wolff, who is , vowed to make changes to ‘ hiring process when his own driver Hamilton exposed the manufacturer’s lack of female representation within the team.
Lewis Hamilton has spearheaded change in Mercedes’ approach to diversity (Image: Getty)
The British racer launched the Hamilton Commission in June 2020 to improve the presence of underrepresented minorities and communities. When the inaugural Hamilton Commission report came out the following year, only about three per cent of the team’s employees were people of colour and 11 per cent were women.
Three years on from the report, that number has grown to 8.5 per cent, with the team’s female workforce reaching 16 per cent, according to Wolff’s comments made in 2023.
“When deciding who joins, I’m 100 per cent convinced that this diversity, diversity of culture, of craft, of thinking, is going to make us a better team,” he said.
have since launched Accelerate 25, which is a five-year diversity plan that aims to hire at least 25 per cent of new starters from under-represented groups.