After the Christmas holidays last year, Mercedes Formula 1 workers returned to work at the factory. A seemingly normal day that would end with one of the most unexpected announcements on the schedule. Lewis Hamilton asked for an appointment Toto Wolff and then everything changed.
During this meeting, coffee in betweenHamilton told Toto he was leaving for Ferrari the next lesson. Something the leader of the Silver Arrows didn’t expect at all. “Hamilton went on Christmas vacation and “He also left Mercedes forever.”
This was the conversation between the two: “He came back and said: ‘Can we have a coffee?’, he came to drink it, which is normal when a new season starts and he said to me: “I’m going to Ferrari.” And I said, ‘Really?'”
“I asked him why at the start of the season and he told me that I just wanted to get it out and not view it as an emotional burden.. Then we had to remain pragmatic, after 5 minutes of shock and disbelief it was like: ‘ok, what are we going to do with the announcement and the season knowing that you are leaving'”, explains Toto, who is still looking for his replacement.
And then they had to start announcing it. At that time, the Italian press was already beginning to speculate about the possibility of Lewis becoming Charles Leclerc’s teammate. But until now, these were just rumors. A few hours later, it became official.
“He told me that the announcement was complicated because it was already leaking”says Wolff, who decided to make it official the same day.
The relationship between the two has not deteriorated. Wolff, a veteran of the competition, assures that understands the new path taken by the Briton in the latter part of his career. “Disappointed with Hamilton? “No, not at all,” he concludes.