boss has reiterated his shock on the timing of ’s exit from the crew for subsequent 12 months – while additionally emphasising that each athlete has a “shelf life.”
Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who received six of his titles with Mercedes, on the finish of the season to affix Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton, 39, introduced the shock switch previous to the beginning of the present season and whereas Wolff insists in a brand new e-book – Inside Mercedes F1: Life within the Quick Lane – that he was not shocked Hamilton opted for a brand new problem, the timing was a shock of kinds and meant he couldn’t negotiate with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc or McLaren’s Lando Norris.
“I completely had it on my radar that Lewis would go,” Wolff stated.
“I simply couldn’t perceive why he would change to a different crew earlier than we knew if we had been going to be aggressive. It additionally didn’t give me any time to react.
“I needed to emergency name our companions and I presumably missed out on negotiating with different drivers who had signed contracts a couple of weeks earlier like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.
“[But] I just like the state of affairs – it helps us as a result of it avoids the second the place we have to inform the game’s most iconic driver that we wish to cease.”
Wolff, who has changed Hamilton with to associate George Russell subsequent 12 months, additionally defined his rationale for not giving Hamilton a long-term contract.
“There’s a motive why we solely signed a one-plus-one-year contract,” Wolff added.
“We’re in a sport the place cognitive sharpness is extraordinarily necessary and I imagine everybody has a shelf life. So I want to have a look at the subsequent era.
“It’s the identical in soccer. Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola, they anticipated it of their efficiency of their prime stars and introduced in junior gamers that drove the crew for the subsequent years.”
Hamilton is presently on observe for his worst season in F1 by way of championship place. He presently lies seventh within the drivers’ standings, two factors off teammate Russell in sixth, forward of the subsequent race in Las Vegas on 23 November.
