Willi Weber

Wilhelm "Willi" Friedrich Weber (born 11 March 1942 in Regensburg, Germany) is the former manager of German racing drivers including seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher (until 2012), his brother Ralf Schumacher (until November 2005), Nico Hülkenberg (until 2011) and Timo Scheider. He is also the franchise holder for A1 Team Germany.

Willi Weber made himself a name in the motorsport world for discovering and promoting talents like the Schumacher brothers and for being a shrewd negotiator. Besides taking care of his clients' contractual issues he was also successful at making profitable merchandising deals for his clients.

As a teenager Willi Weber trained his negotiating skills buying up worn military uniforms and selling those off to collectors. At the same time he was in an apprenticeship in hotel management in order to learn the business with the target to run his own gastronomic establishment. He succeeded as an entrepreneur with his businesses being based near Stuttgart, Germany, and became a wealthy man with franchises. As a motorsport fan he spent time and good part of his wealth behind the steering wheels of race cars. In 1983 engineer Klaus Trella talked Weber into a partnership and they founded their Formula 3 team WTS (Weber-Trella Stuttgart). Realising that he wasn't a front-runner on the track, Weber made room for ambitious youngsters, and enjoyed his status as team owner. The first success came in 1988 with talented Swabian driver Joachim Winkelhock who won the team's first German F3 Championship title.

...
Wikipedia