No Regrets Over Decisions That Led To Hamilton's Exit Says Wolff

Tuesday, 10 September 2024 at 22:00

Toto Wolff asserted he and Mercedes had no regrets over decisions that prompted Lewis Hamilton's exit at the end of the 2024 season.

The team principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, recently gave an update on the atmosphere inside his F1 team with eight Grand Prix weekends to go before the seven-time World Champion leaves for Ferrari.

He said Hamilton and all the colleagues were enjoying some of their last moments together, pushing 100% until the final race in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton has been with Mercedes longer than any driver with any other team in the history of F1, and together, they've achieved incredible success.

When BBC asked Toto Wolff whether he had any regrets about decisions that led the seven-time World Champion to sign with Ferrari, he responded:

"No. We decided as a team for that and we were always very transparent with Lewis, and the good thing with him is he is able to put himself in your position and understood where we were coming from."

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"So, in that respect, there are no bad feelings, there is no betrayal. It was also for the good of him to change."

F1 teams tend to offer long-term contracts to drivers they value, and Lewis Hamilton was offered only a one-plus-one-year deal from Mercedes.

That meant the team could have canceled his contract after 2024 if certain conditions were met. However, it also worked the other way around, and the 39-year-old decided to pull the trigger. Wolff added:

"This was the longest run between a driver and a team. It was 12 years overall. And maybe he needed to, in a way, change and reinvent himself."

"Being a driver for Ferrari is super-prestigious. Maybe for us as a team also, it is important to emancipate ourselves and go in a different direction."