F1 2025: Toto Wolff's 'tears' over Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes exit

Wolff, Hamilton, social — Photo: © IMAGO

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Wolff's 'tears' over Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes exit

Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes following the 2024 season to join Ferrari

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Sunday 16 March 2025 19:57

Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff has joked over shedding 'tears' over the departure of his star driver Lewis Hamilton ahead of the 2025 season.

Hamilton and Wolff are now rivals as the 2025 Australian Grand Prix kicked off the new F1 season with Wolff still in charge of the Silver Arrows outfit while the seven-time champion was making his Ferrari debut, finishing a disappointing 10th.

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Wolff was caught by surprise before the 2024 season had even begun last year as Hamilton announced to the world that he would be leaving the Silver Arrows to join Ferrari for 2025.

Ahead of Hamilton's competitive debut in red, previously unseen footage has been aired as part of the popular Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, documenting how Wolff and the most successful driver in Mercedes' history dealt with the news.

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After 12 seasons, eight consecutive constructors' titles and six of Hamilton's own seven championships were won, the F1 legend has now officially made the switch to Ferrari.

Ahead of his on-track debut in the SF-25, viewers had to get used to seeing Hamilton back with Mercedes for the new season of Drive to Survive, where exclusive footage of Wolff showed the F1 boss getting to grips with Hamilton's surprise exit.

In a preview clip shown on Sky Sports from season 7, Wolff said: "When he told me it seemed a bit surreal, when my driver - after 12 years - tells me he’s going to Ferrari.

Wolff appeared to struggle with the change, adding: "'Really? I can’t even picture you in a red overall - how does that even fit?'.

"What came as a surprise was the timing - why would he do that now?," he concluded, before wiping his eye.

"Sorry I have a hair in my eye," the Mercedes boss explained, before poking fun at the dramatic nature of the Netflix show.

"You are using that already I'm sure for tears, ‘like he was crying’."