Mercedes F1 Exits: Toto Wolff in stark admission over key team members 'wanting' to LEAVE

Toto Wolff during press conference — Photo: © IMAGO

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Wolff in stark admission over key Mercedes figures 'wanting' to LEAVE

Toto Wolff has opened up on high-profile Mercedes defections.

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 20 May 2024 17:55 Updated: 19:47

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has discussed the departure of key figures from the team, including Loic Serra and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Lewis Hamilton dealt an initial blow to the Brackley squad, when he announced he would be leaving to join Ferrari for 2025.

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Furthermore, Serra and d’Ambrosio will follow the seven-time world champion to the Scuderia following their departure from Mercedes.

Serra will become the head of chassis performance engineering, while d'Ambrosio will become deputy team principal, and head Ferrari’s young driver academy.

Lewis Hamilton will move to Ferrari in 2025

Loic Serra and Jerome d'Ambrosio move with Hamilton to Ferrari

How has Toto Wolff responded to Mercedes staff exodus?

Mercedes have also lost their chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino, although it is unknown whether he will join his former colleagues at Ferrari.

Morale has been low at Mercedes thus far in the 2024 season, falling behind rivals McLaren and Ferrari, who have a win apiece.

Lewis Hamilton has frequently bemoaned the pace of his Mercedes, failing to gain a podium this season, and has not had a race win since 2021.

Despite these high-profile defections, Toto Wolff remained confident that the team will hold together, and described them as being on an ‘upwards trajectory’.

“We're in a really good spot because we've had eight consecutive championships and then it started to deteriorate and part of that is also human component,” Wolff said to Sky Sports after FP3 in Imola.

Toto Wolff responds to Mercedes defections

“And I think how it's shaping up now some wanted to go some we had to [let] go.

"In the same time we're getting fresh joiners, and all of that with the leadership of James [Allison] who does that so well and is such an inspiration for the team that I feel we're in a really upward trajectory with the motivation, the energy, the competence presumably.”