Toto Wolff on Mercedes withdrawal: "Formula E not big enough".

In the summer of 2022, Mercedes ended its factory project in Formula E. The "Silver Arrows" thus put themselves in a row with BMW and Audi, which had already pulled the proverbial plug a year earlier. Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff now explains: one reason for the withdrawal was the unsatisfactory TV ratings.

In an interview with the Polish motorsport medium 'Swiat Wyscigow', the motorsport official takes a swing: "I think Formula 1 is now so big that it trumps everything else. We were also very satisfied and successful in the DTM, but you had to invest 40 or 50 million euros to be successful. And for that investment, we got relatively little back."

"The same applies to Formula E, where the audience figures were simply not good enough. That's why we decided that we would focus completely on Formula 1 and put all our resources into this project, instead of being distracted by other things," said Wolff.

In 2022, Formula E reached an international cumulative 381 million TV viewers:inside - presumably again far less than Formula 1 (2021: 1.55 billion TV viewers:inside). The most-watched E-Prix in Germany last year was Sunday's race in Rome, which was watched by 1.25 million fans on ProSieben.