Toto Wolff reveals ‘bruising’ element behind Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari move

Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season

Toto Wolff says he felt “bruised” by Lewis Hamilton’s shock switch to Ferrari, and claims it was the Scuderia who “leaked” the news.

Hamilton dropped a bombshell on Wolff on the final day of January when he informed his team boss over a coffee meeting that this year’s championship would be his last with the Silver Arrows.

Toto Wolff: Play hard, forgive quickly and apologise when you’re wrong

A day later, and with whispers of Hamilton’s pending exit buzzing in the press, Mercedes confirmed they’d be parting ways after Hamilton activated a release clause in his contract.

Ferrari followed that up by announcing the seven-time World Champion had signed a multi-year deal, starting in 2025.

Wolff was left reeling as, having re-signed Hamilton to a two-year contract just months prior, he had to deal with the fall-out while also beginning his search for a new team-mate for George Russell.

The Austrian, who had just a day to process the news, claims it was Ferrari who “leaked” it and thus forced Mercedes to announce Hamilton’s departure immediately when he would’ve liked to wait a while.

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“There is a professional and a personal relationship and when he signed a very short-term contract [last year], it was clear that could happen,” he told Sky F1.

“What was bruising is that I didn’t have any time to react. It was basically the same day. And when I said, ‘Okay, how are we going to announce this? The beginning of the season or mid-season?’

“It was clear it was leaking from Ferrari. And it was happening to fall on the day of earnings.

“That didn’t give me enough time to do some stakeholder management, call our sponsors, the shareholders and explain what was happening. That was the only thing.

“But I somewhere read a good motto, ‘Play hard, forgive quickly and apologise when you’re wrong’. And the personal relationship [with Hamilton] doesn’t suffer.

“If I put myself in his shoes, I can understand because the team wasn’t doing very well.

“When you’re in the last phase of your career, everyone wants to wear red overalls with a yellow prancing horse. Probably the financial terms were also very positive.

“So I kind of got my head around it and why he’s doing that, and I have absolute peace with him in my relationship that goes much deeper.

“For 12 years we’ve been friends and allies and brothers in crime and he’s got to be competitive in the car but we haven’t divorced as friends.”

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