Wolff Reveals Reason Hamilton Gave Him For Leaving Mercedes

Sunday, 04 February 2024 at 00:00

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Toto Wolff shared the reason for the departure the seven-time World Champion gave him before making the official announcement.

Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari is the biggest news and the greatest surprise of the 2024 silly season. Italian media said Italy perceives Hamilton coming to Ferrari, similarly to how they perceived Christian Ronaldo joining Juventus.

But a question everyone is asking is: Why? There was seemingly no reason for the seven-time World Champion to switch teams. He has been with the Mercedes F1 team for 11 years, and many thought he would finish his career with Silver Arrows.

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Asked what might be the reason behind the 39-year-old changing his mind from the time of his singing contract with Mercedes on August 31, Wolff told the media:

"I cannot tell you exactly. We were very aligned when we went into the Christmas period and I think we've said that in public and in the team. You need to ask Lewis why he changed his mind."

Hamilton has been asked a couple of times before in his career whether he would consider joining Ferrari, and while he always said he was loyal to Mercedes, he never completely dismissed the idea.

"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."

Having secured both of their drivers at least until the end of 2025, Mercedes probably wanted now to focus on other aspects of improving performance.

But Wolff openly admitted Hamilton's announcement caught him by surprise. The positive thing is he will have one season to search for a replacement.

"Clearly, the timing was surprising to us. But I guess what he tried to do is maybe to give us a long time to decide what we want to do next year going forward."