Wolff plays down Ecclestone successor reports

Sep.6 - Toto Wolff has played down suggestions he would make an ideal successor to Bernie Ecclestone.

As speculation swirls about new majority owners for F1's commercial rights, it has been suggested F1 supremo Ecclestone's long reign could end imminently.

Amid that talk, the 85-year-old chief executive this week said Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, could "absolutely" take over in theory.

"He has the skills to do the job," Ecclestone told the German newspaper Bild.

Now, to the same newspaper, 44-year-old Wolff replied: "I am of course flattered when such a man,

who has made formula one what it is over many decades, has trust in me.

"But I am wholeheartedly with Mercedes and will stay here," he insisted.

Bild said team co-owner Wolff's current contract with Mercedes runs until 2017.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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