Wolff sets the bar high for Porsche: 'You don't just win in Formula 1'.

F1 is the Champions League

Mercedes returned to Formula 1 in 2010 and had four difficult years on the way to their title in 2014. Since then they haven't seen Mercedes back and team boss Wolff isn't too keen on giving up that lead either. All well and good that Porsche and Audi want to come to F1 as major brands, but it won't happen without a fight.

''F1 is the Champions’ League, and nobody can expect to enter the Champions' League for the first time and be straight into the final and go home with the big trophy. We've been there since a long time, we've invested lots of money, sweat and blood and terrible results in order to get us where we are,'' Wolff said at Autosport.com.

Mercedes needed time too

''I think everybody recognises that you cannot just come and conquer, but you need to give it time. When you look at Toyota, Honda and BMW as near past experiences, all the money, all the resource is irrelevant if you don't give the project enough time.''

According to Wolff, it is therefore not about the money, but about the time the manufacturer wants to put into F1. ''I think everybody who joins F1 as a team or as a power unit manufacturer needs to understand this. It needs time. And that makes the sport so attractive: that it is just not easy to win'', concludes the Austrian.