Toto Wolff took advice from Manchester City Head Coach Pep Guardiola amid learning Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave Mercedes to join Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton signed a 1+1 contract extension with Mercedes in 2023, a deal which, if all parties agreed would have kept him at the Silver Arrows through the 2025 campaign.
But on the eve of this year’s campaign, Hamilton shocked the world by announcing he would part ways with Mercedes at the end of 2024 to join the fabled Scuderia.
Rather than tempt Hamilton from joining Ferrari, Wolff lent into a philosophy shared with him by Guardiola.
“I think if someone decides to go, then you need to let them go,” Wolff topped the High Performance Podcast.
“I had a chat with Pep Guardiola a long time ago, and he is a friend.
“I said, ‘What do you do if this and that player leaves?’ And he said, ‘What do you mean I do?’ I said, ‘Well, do you try to convince them to stay?’
“He said: ‘No, if somebody thinks he can play elsewhere better or earns more – you have just got to let them go.’
“And it is something that I embrace in the same way here. Somebody wants to go – then let’s make it as good as possible for each of the parties.”
Wolff ultimately settled on Mercedes Junior and Italian teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli to be Hamilton’s successor.
After making the announcement at the Italian Grand Prix, Wolff said “I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me he was going to Ferrari.”
Wolff began Hamilton talks with Ferrari hire reveal
Hamilton’s impending move to Ferrari will bring an end to a career-long association with Mercedes in F1.
The German marque powered Hamilton in his McLaren days and from 2013 he has raced for the Silver Arrows.
In a somewhat ironic manner, Wolff implying to Hamilton in an annual pre-season meeting that Mercedes had poached Simone Resta from Ferrari brought about a stunning revelation.
“When Lewis arrived in the house, like he did so many years before, we had a bit of a small talk, like we always do about the Christmas holidays and all of that,” explained Wolff.
“Then I said, ‘Well, we’re recruiting from Ferrari now. We got this guy.’
“And Lewis was, ‘Oh, there’s something I need to tell you.’ And yeah, when he said that, that initial moment was a little bit of… so this is really happening?”
READ MORE – Toto Wolff claims Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Ferrari F1 move will ‘help’ Mercedes
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