staff principal has revealed how he realized that was becoming a member of placing an finish to probably the most profitable partnerships in historical past.
Wolff has been the top honcho at Mercedes since 2013 and led them to eight consecutive constructors’ championships, from 2014 to 2021 with Hamilton, who joined the staff on the similar time, additionally claiming six of his seven drivers’ world titles throughout that point.
The staff have since dipped right into a lean interval with third and second positioned finishes in 2022 and 2023 respectively whereas the most effective behind Pink Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.
Talking forward of this week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, the 52-year-old opened up on when he knew that Hamilton was leaving the staff and what their relationship will probably be like going ahead.
“There may be an emotional aspect as a result of we’ve been on this journey collectively,” Wolff instructed “The friendship will change, however not the depth of emotion. Quite the opposite. This will probably be a brand new friendship with Lewis.
“On the skilled aspect, I all the time see advantages in change. We’ve got new rules, we have now reshaped our organisation and we’re embarking on a brand new period with our senior driver [George Russell] turning 27 and the junior driver [Kimi Antonelli] being 18. We’ve got two drivers barely older collectively than Lewis [who is 40 in January]. That’s very thrilling.”
Relating the second he knew he’d misplaced Hamilton to Ferrari again in January of this 12 months, Wolff revealed: “I wasn’t shocked in any respect. I knew this was taking place a number of weeks earlier after I bought a cellphone name from Carlos Sainz and his father. He mentioned: ‘One thing is cooking.’
“That very same afternoon I obtained calls from a number of different drivers that had been near Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso too. I believe it began from Leclerc understanding over the winter after which his closest allies listening to there was a seat free [at Mercedes]. I mentioned to Susie: ‘That is taking place with out us formally understanding.’”
Wolff defined that he despatched a textual content message to Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s staff principal, asking for affirmation of Hamilton’s departure however obtained no reply. He determined in opposition to chatting with Hamilton immediately as he “didn’t wish to put him in a scenario the place he needed to lie”.
Wolff added that when Hamilton got here to talk to him in regards to the scenario a few weeks later the 40-year-old discovered it troublesome “I noticed the ache in him to inform me,” he mentioned.
Hamilton’s departure did include a slim silver lining as Wolff needn’t face a trickier dialog about Hamilton being too outdated for a contract renewal. “I’d have finished it,” Wolff claimed, “However that will have been an actual horror for me and for him.”
