Toto Wolff opens up on how the talks happened with Lewis Hamilton regarding his Ferrari move and how things are at the moment.
After all the years of rumours, it finally happened. Hamilton eventually decided to drive for Ferrari from 2025 F1 season onward after cutting down a year on his Mercedes contract. Even with all the speculation, nobody expected that the Brit would jump ship.
But he did so with the lure of Ferrari being real as Wolff understands it too. The Austrian revealed that Hamilton only told him about his decision on Wednesday after he heard rumours about it few days before. The timing of the jump surprised him more.
The short-term contract that they signed in 2023 already gave an idea that things like this could happen in the future but Wolff was more prepared to run through the deal rather than cutting it down. But such situations has made him more resilient.
He already face one with Nico Rosberg after 2016 and there was also the 2021 situation. That is why the first thought that Wolff had upon hearing was how will they communicate and what will be the next steps and how they will go through the 2024 season.
Even Hamilton’s race engineer had no idea about it and asked if it was April Fools joke. At this juncture, it is not clear if he will jump ship with him. At the moment, Wolff is looking ahead to 2024 and help with the eighth title even with odds against them.
Here’s what was said in the media briefing that Wolff had –
How did the talks happened eventually –
Wolff: “Earlier come together than expected, I guess. So how did it all go? I think maybe a little bit of context. When we signed the contract with Lewis, we opted for shorter term. And so the events are not a surprise, maybe the timing. What happened is that we got together for coffee in my place in Oxford and him returning, basically returning to the factory. He said to me that he has decided to race for Ferrari in 2025. And that was. That was basically that we had a good hour of conversation. And yeah, this is where we are. As for Lewis, clearly, as I said, the the timing was surprising to us, too. I guess how what he tried to do is maybe to give us a long time to decide what we want to do going forward for next year and we will extract everything we have.
What changed for this decision
Wolff: “I cannot tell you exactly. I only know that we were very aligned when we went into the Christmas period. And I think that was we’ve said that in public and in the team. And you need to ask Lewis why he why he changed his mind. How he framed it to me is perfectly understandable that he needed a new challenge, that he was looking for a different environment and that it was maybe the last possibility to do something else. And, you know, we are we’re big boys. We knew that by signing a short term contract, it could be could be of benefit for both sides. We couldn’t commit for a longer period. And and he’s taking he’s taking the option to exit. I totally we totally respect that, you can change your mind with different circumstances and switching to Ferrari, maybe for the last move in his career, maybe rolling the dice a bit. I can follow that decision.”
Why is he seeking to go elsewhere and if he wins the title there –
Wolff: “I think what he said is that he felt he needed change and I can understand that, we’ve been together, I believe it was 12 years, I don’t know if any other driver has ever been that long with a team. We’ve had tremendous success and I think we looked, we shared the opinion when we decided to sign a short-term contract that there may be opportunities for him and for us and therefore if it was maybe one of the consideration was the opportunity to sign a long-term contract with Ferrari and give it a really big go at the end of his career. We didn’t talk about whether the opportunity was better there or with us, because I don’t think you can say. At the end of the day, he is the most successful driver and we’ve had a sensational spell and journey together – that’s something that will go down in the history books and also in the Mercedes history books. But we’re the Mercedes Formula 1 team. We’re the best car brand in the world, a team with legacy and we want to finish this on a high in terms of his career. But I can promise you we will build another phase of success – more victories, more world championships in the years to come – and we will be looking back at this very, very good time with Lewis in the Mercedes.”
You are more calm about the situation –
Wolff: “In a way, Formula 1 and my previous life have made me resilient to surprises. I’ve been confronted so many times in my life with black swans but it was a surprise. As I said before, we went open eyes into this contract, into this phase of our relationship and we knew that maybe it could be a year, it could be two. We knew that it would come to an end at the latest at the end of 2025. The surprise was that I’ve heard the rumours a couple of days earlier but wanted to wait for the breakfast we had planned and that was Wednesday morning. This was when he broke the news. But with me you can be very straightforward because I’m straightforward too. So, once he said this is what I’m trying to do, that was the fact and I didn’t try to convince him otherwise but just looking forward okay ‘what are we doing about communications? What’s the timing? How do we protect the the team best and how do we protect this 2024 year to be to be successful together with our two drivers without causing too much too much awkwardness?’ [And he’s driving the car on the simulator] today.”
Ferrari lure real –
Wolff: “Yes, because every race driver dreams about being in a red overall and in the red car. And we’ve discussed it many times before that this would be exciting to do one day. But over the years we came to the conclusion that staying at Mercedes and finishing the legacy here is something that one can be proud of. But I never ignore the possibility of change – whether it’s Ferrari or another team – so this is what it is. The fact didn’t surprise me at all, maybe the timing, but I can understand where he was coming from and that was to protect the team’s interest going forward.”
His race engineer Pete Bonnington goes with him or not –
Wolff: “I think this is a discussion which everyone needs to have in the months to come and as much as I have spoken with Bono already, when I told him he said, ‘is it April the 1st?’ That’s something which we will discuss going down in the future.”
Can a title be won in 2024 or it is now done –
Wolff: “Thank you for reminding me about 2021 being the last time we were really good. So we have a year to go, we have 2024 together. We want to make it the most successful we can. Is it realistic that we are competing for a world championship against Max in a Red Bull? You know, if I’m a probability person, the odds are against us. But nevertheless, we will give it our best shot. And then, when we talked about giving it all for an eighth title, that is Lewis in a Mercedes. Lewis in a different car, it’s obviously a totally different story. We will be giving it everything we have to win driver and constructor championships in the years to come in the same way as we want to win it in 2024. But then maybe with another driver. But it doesn’t take anything away from the historic legacy that will always exist, the history books. This journey together will be in the history books as much as the next journey of a Mercedes driver will hopefully also be the history books.”
Your friendship has been personal, so how was that feeling –
Wolff: “When he told me first my next thought was pragmatic. What does it mean? When are we communicating this? What are the pressure points? How are we managing the season going forward and what is it we are going to do in terms of driver line up? So the team’s mind kicked in. Having slept a few nights upon it, it means that our professional journey comes to an end, of working together, but it doesn’t mean that our personal relationship ends. I’ve found a friend, we’ve built a relationship over the last 10 years and he faced a very, very difficult situation, taking of taking a decision of where to drive, maybe for the first time since 10 years without being able to brainstorm with me. Therefore, I will always respect the difficulty of the situation that he faced and in the future we will discuss whether this could have been done in a different way or not. But I hold no grudge.”
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