A 189mph crash which threatened Toto Wolff’s life eventually ☂led to meeting his future wife Susie Wolff.

The Mercedes team principal has recalled th�꧅�e infamous tale of his terrifying accident in 2009.

Driving a Porsche 911 RSR at the notorious Nurburgring, a 37-year-old Wolff’s attempt to break a seven-minute lap almost ended in dis🅺aster.

“The track was different, it wasn’t the ne🦩w asphalt. It was riskier and bumpier,” he told the Armchair Expert podcast.

“It was crazy dangerousꦰ. There is nothing like it.

“I was friends♐ with Niki Lauda who had hi✨s crash in Formula 1 there. That’s where he burned.

“He said: ‘Why are you doi𒁃ng this? It’s so stupid. Nobody cares what you do at the Nurburgring!’

“I was in a bit of a mid-life crisis!

“It was on a preparation lap. The car already felt odd, the tyres were🌜 fallin﷽g apart.

“It was an amateur approach. I said to myself, while🌌 already knowing that th🗹e car had an issue, I am going to give it one try.

“On that 🎶one ౠtry, the car was up by 15 seconds. It would have been a 6.40 or a 6.35.

“Today a good time is around 6.20 ౠor so but this was 15 years ago, and the track was completely different. Parts that are flat ಞtoday were not flat, back in the day.

“The car🀅 felt odd. I said ‘I ꦗam just going to finish the lap’.

“Then I ha༺d a puncture in the💜 most dangerous part. I was doing 189mph.

“With a right rear puncture ▨I went off into the guardrail. I went onto the roof. I didn’t go into th🍰e forest which was lucky. I slid 250m then stopped.

“I stopped the car, it was on𒐪 fumes. I thought everything was normal.

“Then they found me 🐬behind the guardrai𒊎l with the helmet on, laying on my back, like I was sleeping. I have no recollection.

“With shock and adrenaline, I g♚ot myself out of the car. I had massive co🅘ncussion.

“They found me unconscious. They put𝄹 me in the ambulance and took me to the local hospital, with oxygen on.

“The worrying bit was an ache in my 𓄧💖spine, and tingling in my legs. I thought ‘Niki was right’.

“They put me in an X-𒉰ray. I asked a nurse ‘is my spine dam꧑aged?’

“She said: ‘I am not authorised to g🦄ive you that information’.

“I still had tingling. The doctor came and said ‘you are find with the spinal cord but you have compr♔ession fractures, and one of your eyes is tilting i🌠nto the inside’.”

How Toto Wolff met Susie Wolff

Wolff defied doctors’ orders and flew in an aeroplane (ꦏat only 10,000ft to avoid pressure on his eye) back to Vienna.

He was unable to sleep due to vertigo. He lost his smell and taste and when it returned, evܫerything tasted like cardboard.

He had suffered nerve damage.

But it led to ౠmeeting h☂is future wife, herself also a racing driver.

“♛She was on a fitness camp with other Mercedes drivers,” Wolff said.

“I was a shareholder in the touring car team 𒅌but we didn’t know eaꩲch other.

“There was a rumour that Toto had a bad accident.

“She called me. And that’s how we started…

“She asked if I was okay. We started talking. It was a half an hou♔r phone call.”

Toto and Susie got married in 2011.