Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has opened up on his first ever job, and fans have been left stunned by the billionaire’s early career

View Image

Toto Wolff revealed his first job during a unique interview

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team boss Toto Wolff has revealed what his first ever job was, leaving fans utterly stunned. The billionaire team principal and CEO of Mercedes was quizzed about his earliest role whilst taking part in the Career Ladder, a TikTok video series by Max Klymenko.

In the series, Max challenges random people to stand on a ladder whilst he tries to work out their profession. But with Toto Wolff, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to guess what he does, so Max decided to have a go at figuring out the Austrian’s very first job.

After climbing onto the ladder, Toto declared: “You can guess, but you’re never going to find out.”

Max kicked off by asking whether Toto had worked as a mechanic or had something to do with cars, and whilst he confirmed he was keen on cars, he said it had nothing to do with his first job.

He also told Max he was a “drop out” and didn’t have a university degree.

Whilst answering a series of questions, Toto confirmed his first job was his own venture that he launched when he was 18 or 19 years old, flogging torches.

During the chat he said he worked in sales in Vienna, Austria and shifted 10,000 items per day at a price of €2.50. Toto said: “It was actually a very humanitarian thing that I did, they helped impact others lives. I bought all the torches and candles I could find around Vienna, I think it was 25,000, and we sold them on that evening, whenever that was, in Austria in the 90s.”

Supporters were stunned by two revelations from the chat – Toto’s initial career and the fact he’d abandoned university.

One supporter commented: “Toto Wolff saying “I’m a dropout” was not on my bingo.”

Another remarked: “HE STARTED OFF BY SELLING TORCHES WHAT.”

A third added: “Bro dropped out and casually built one of the best F1 teams and made a 7 time world champion.”

Max Klymenko, who was born in Ukraine, scooped Creator of the Year at the 2025 TikTok Awards UK and Ireland on Thursday, November 13.

Upon collecting the gong, he revealed to the crowd how his nan would log into multiple TikTok profiles to boost his viewing figures.

Boasting 8.5 million followers today, his clips are watched by billions annually.

He declared: “Thank you to my audience. I want to thank my parents for giving birth to me. My grandma, who was the first one to watch my videos.

“I’m an immigrant in this country, I feel like right now getting this award is super special to me. For your own individual career ladders, nothing is out of reach. Slava Ukraini.”