Hamilton 'emotional burden' heading into 2024 season revealed

Toto Wolff has spoken about Lewis Hamilton's 'emotional burden' heading into the start of 2024.

The seven-time world champion has suffered a disappointing start to the season, sitting down in 10th in the drivers' standings following a seventh and ninth-placed finish, as well as a DNF, in the three races so far.

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Hamilton himself described it as his 'worst ever start' to a Formula 1 season, putting it below the previous two seasons, in both of which he failed to claim a single race victory.

The Brit will head to Ferrari at the end of this season, ditching his Mercedes team in the pursuit of an unprecedented eighth world championship title.

Hamilton's timely decision

Now, Mercedes team principal Wolff has spoken about when Hamilton first told him of his decision to make the move to Maranello.

He suggests that Hamilton wanted to get the announcement out of the way before the 2024 season in order to be able to focus on his goal of returning Mercedes back to winning ways.

“I think it was difficult for him to really tell me because he left for the Christmas holiday and was Mercedes forever,” Wolff told Fox News Australia at the Australian Grand Prix.

“Normally that’s a time where we don’t speak a lot because he’s gone, because otherwise we’re speaking every day. And then he came back and said, 'can we have a coffee?'

"He came for the coffee, that’s the normal thing we’re doing when the season kicks off, and he said, ‘I’m leaving to Ferrari’. And I said, ‘really?’

“And not that it shocked me, because we knew that we have a short-term contract, but the timing at the beginning of the season.

“I said, ‘why at the beginning of the season?’ He said he just wanted to have it out and not have it as a burden, emotional burden."

READ MORE: Mercedes driver suggests Hamilton struggles could be irreversible

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