Wolff takes over as Fry steps down at Mercedes

2013 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Further management changes at Mercedes will see Nick Fry step down next month and Toto Wolff take over his former responsibilities.

Wolff thanked the outgoing chief executive officer, saying “Mercedes AMG Petronas enjoys a strong network of global, blue-chip partners who want to be associated with Mercedes-Benz in Formula One and we will work hard to retain our loyal partners while also attracting new names to the sport in the future.

“I am pleased that Nick will remain close to the team to support us in achieving these targets.”

Fry has been with the team since 2002 when it was BAR. Together with Ross Brawn he played a role in salvaging the team when its F1 programme was cancelled by Honda at the end of 2008. After running for one year as Brawn it was taken over by Mercedes.

“I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to work with our team for the last 11 years and remain extremely proud of the fact that we took the team to its first race win and especially the double world championship in 2009,” said Fry.

“Equally important is the success of our commercial activities as we have managed to gain the support of some of the most important companies in the world, thereby building a strong foundation for the future success of the team.”

“I believe that Mercedes AMG Petronas offers the best sponsorship proposition in Formula One and I look forward to continuing to assist the team and its partners over the coming years.”

Wolff joined Mercedes from Williams in January as executive director.

2013 F1 season


Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

17 comments on “Wolff takes over as Fry steps down at Mercedes”

  1. “I am pleased that Nick will remain close to the team to support us in achieving these targets.”

    I am sure Nick Fry is pleased about this too. I know it will never happen, but it would have been nice if teams were honest in their press releases.

    1. Are you sure he won’t?

      It doesn’t say where he is going but he might have been offered a non-executive directorship. It does seem an odd thing to say though if not.

      1. Yes I agree – strange. I saw in another report that he will remain as a consultant until the end of 2014, but not sure how accurate this is.

  2. hmm so where would paddy lowe be ?

  3. Does that mean that Fry is going to be helping on some other motorsport activity…what exactly is ther for him now

  4. How creepy does he look in that photo !

    1. Probably heard that his plan to get Britney Spears in the car just pulled off.

    2. @f190 – that was exactly my reaction! “First I will take over your team, then I will build an evil layer in a hollowed out volcano and take over Ze World!”

    3. @f190 Looks like any regular Austrian to me.

  5. I am surprised he lasted this long. Fry had almost been redundant since the Honda days after Brawn came on board. He never really delivered as a team boss.

    1. He must have done something well? Wasn’t he the one who came with the earth car?

      1. The RA107’s livery was just horrific and made very little sense given the regulations at the time. The Mercedes team (and BAR, Honda, Brawn) has never had a good looking livery, but for me the RA107 (2007) and BAR 01 (1999) are amongst the worst liveries ever.

        1. Fully agreed,
          upon re-reading the irony of my post is somewhat lost…
          Boy what an ugggly car was that!

  6. Ross Brawn in danger.

    1. I think it only makes sense to give Wolff more of a clear role, Fry really was in a job that covered much the same things, wasn’t he?

      With Brawn its quite a different thing, so I don’t think he will be replaced yet.

  7. Excellent!
    Now all I need to do is get rid of Ross, so that Paddy can start making us some overcomplicated cars!

  8. More evidence that the Mercedes/Hamilton plan is either going to be a total success or a complete failure.

    Nick Fry always came across as a grand master of average and quite content to be nice and sit it out in the mid-field if he was lucky. Probably a great people person (hence his previous roles in areas such as customer services) but never one to give an impression that there was latent ambition just waiting to burst forth.

    Now we’re all expecting Ross to be given the boot also but personally I think that would be disastrous…

Comments are closed.