Toto Wolff has revealed that Lewis Hamilton revealed the news of his Mercedes departure to him at his home in Oxford, as the two had breakfast.
The seven-time world champion will leave the team to join Ferrari after a partnership lasting over a decade, which brought him six drivers' championships.
The move was one of the biggest in the history of the sport, and has shaken up the paddock as they prepare for the start of the season in just a few weeks.
Even Wolff himself was caught slightly off guard by the decision, which leaves him with a vacant seat after the conclusion of the 2024 season.
Lewis Hamilton will depart the Mercedes team after 12 seasons at the end of 2024Lewis Hamilton will join a Ferrari team that is without a championship in 16 yearsGeorge Russell will have a new team-mate heading into the 2025 season with Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes
Wolff: I hold no grudge
Talking to AP News about how he received the information, he revealed that despite rumours, he wanted to wait until breakfast before finding out if they were true.
“The surprise was that I’ve heard the rumours a couple of days earlier but wanted to wait for the breakfast we had planned,” said Wolff. “It was Wednesday morning, and this is when he broke the news,
“But, you know, you can be very straightforward with me because I’m very straightforward too. So, once he said, ‘This is what I’m trying to do,’ that was the fact. I didn’t try to convince him otherwise.
“In the future, we will discuss whether this could have been done in a different way or not, but I hold no grudge.
“I always like change because change provides you opportunity, and in the same way we’ve embraced the Nico situation. That was equally like from one moment to the other, unexpected.”
The two must now work together to deliver an improvement on last year’s second place finish in the constructors’ championship – a year in which they failed to win for the first time since 2011.
While Hamilton will be phased out of contributing to future projects, the lasting effect and legacy he leaves with the team should enable them to remain competitive at the top of the Formula 1 ladder.
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