Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that he retains no regrets over the actions which will see Lewis Hamilton leave the team at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
The marque appeared to have tied down Hamilton along with George Russell through 2025 when it announced two new deals at the Italian Grand Prix last September.
However, the unexpected revelation earlier this term that Hamilton will switch to Ferrari next season exposed that an exit clause had been included in their agreement.
Mercedes is reported to have proposed a single-term deal to Hamilton during initial discussions, which extended to a ‘one plus one’ contract once negotiations ended.
Wolff’s desire to not lose out on protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s services as he had with Max Verstappen in 2014 is believed to have been behind the shorter contract.
But while the most successful team and driver combination will soon come to a close, Wolff has denied that he would have changed the choices that led to this point.
Asked whether he harbours regrets about the decisions that resulted in Hamilton electing to depart to Ferrari on a multi-term contract, Wolff told the BBC “No.
“We decided as a team for that and we were always very transparent with Lewis.
“And the good thing with him is he is able to put himself in your position and understood where we were coming from.
“So in that respect there are no bad feelings, there is no betrayal.
“It was also for the good of him to change. This was the longest run between a driver and a team. It was 12 years overall. And maybe he needed to, in a way, change and reinvent himself.
“Being a driver for Ferrari is super-prestigious. Maybe for us as a team also it is important to emancipate ourselves and go in a different direction.”
Hamilton’s choice to leave McLaren to switch to Mercedes in 2012 has seen him go on to become F1’s most decorated driver with seven titles and a record 104 wins.
The Briton’s impending move to Ferrari will ensure that he continues to race in the series into his 40s, as he pursues a record-breaking eighth F1 World Championship.
Hamilton was poised to take that crown at the last race in 2021 until then FIA Race Director Michael Masi contravened the restart regulations under a late Safety Car.
But although Wolff has held resent towards Masi over his actions in the period since, the Austrian has insisted that race hasn’t impacted Hamilton’s place as the best.
“You have to look at it from a point more detached than we do,” he began. “He is the greatest F1 driver of all time.
“He has beaten all the records and there is only this one, with championships, where he is equal with Michael Schumacher, another great – if not, with Lewis, the greatest driver.
“So it is what it is. And we can’t change that.
“Would I have wanted it to go the other way? Absolutely. Do I think what happened in 2021 was anywhere near fair? No, it wasn’t.
“But we can’t turn back time and there are worse things than losing a race or a World Championship. There is more drama in the world out there.”
Discussion about this post