Toto Wolff has opened up about the ‘real trauma’ that helped him move past Lewis Hamilton’s departure bombshell earlier this season. The seven-time world champion will join Ferrari in 2025, ending a 13-year partnership with Mercedes.
Hamilton has been part of the fabric at Mercedes for over a decade and during that time formed a close relationship with Wolff. However, that was brought to an unexpected end in February this year.
Opening up on his feelings after the news broke, Wolff told the High Performance podcast: “Well I had much worse in my life happening, like real drama and trauma.
“This is not even moving the needle. Now, Lewis is a friend and will forever be a friend. We’ve had 12 years in the team together so that was just an unusual thought of ‘This is ending’.
“But [it was] not challenging in whichever way. So no, that wasn’t a problem. It is just a new situation, it has risks and opportunities – risks in the sense of ‘How do I inform the sponsors as quickly as possible’ because it was leaking. And on the other hand, I had to [answer] what are we doing about next year?”
Wolff was subsequently asked whether or not he wanted to persuade Hamilton to stay. “If somebody decides to go, then you need to let them go,” he replied. “I had a chat with Pep Guardiola a long time ago and he’s a friend. I said ‘What do you do if this or 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, then you have just got to let them go’. And that is something I embrace in the same way here. If somebody wants to go, then let’s make it as good as possible for each of the parties.”
Replacing Hamilton at Mercedes is Kimi Antonelli, who has been the star of the Silver Arrows’ junior team throughout his days in karting, the Italian F4 championship and the Formula Regional European Championship.
The 18-year-old will have a steep learning curve when he turns out in Bahrain. After crashing during his FP1 debut in Monza in September, the pressure is on for him to replace the most successful driver in F1 history next year.
