Toto Wolff plays down Bernie Ecclestone successor reports

Toto Wolff the Mercedes GP Executive Director looks on from the pitwall during day four of Formula One Winter Testing at the Circuito de Jerez on January 31, 2014
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Toto Wolff plays down suggestions he would make an ideal successor to Bernie Ecclestone.

Toto Wolff has played down suggestions that 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 that F1 supremo Ecclestone's long reign could end imminently.

Amid that talk, the 85-year-old chief executive this week said that 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 1 what it is over many decades, has trust in me.

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

The report adds that team co-owner Wolff's current contract with Mercedes runs until 2017.

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