Hamilton Leaves: Wolff Caught Off Guard by Move

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff anticipated Lewis Hamilton‘s departure, but the sudden timing forced the team to quickly adapt their strategy.

Toto Wolff was not surprised to see Lewis Hamilton depart from Mercedes F1, sensing that the British driver was in search of a fresh start. However, he had not anticipated the abrupt timing, nor the necessity to swiftly inform key commercial partners—leaving him little room to strategise on replacing the seven-time world champion.

“I fully expected Lewis to leave,” Wolff revealed in the book Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane. “What I couldn’t quite grasp was his decision to change teams before we had clarity on our competitiveness. I simply didn’t have time to react.”

“I had to urgently notify our partners, and perhaps missed potential negotiations with other drivers who had already signed contracts weeks earlier, like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris. This left us in a challenging position, with clear commercial repercussions.”

“Do I take it personally? Not at all—it was strictly business. We achieved remarkable success together, and now we each have our own goals. To me, it barely moved the needle. I’m thick-skinned. I’ve weathered tough times in my life, and this doesn’t come close.”

Wolff admitted, however, that he was relieved to avoid the inevitable day when Mercedes would need to part ways with such an iconic driver: “But I appreciate the situation. It spares us that difficult moment where we’d have to tell one of the sport’s most iconic figures that we’re ready to move on.”

The Austrian further shared that he had already begun considering younger talents to replace Hamilton, confessing that he was increasingly mindful of the toll age could take on his star driver’s performance. Rising star Andrea Kimi Antonelli, unsurprisingly, had been on his radar from the beginning.

“There’s a reason we only signed a one-year contract with an option. In a sport where cognitive sharpness is paramount, everyone has a limited shelf life,” he explained.

“I must focus on the next generation. It’s akin to football—managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola have long anticipated when their top players would peak, and they brought in younger talents who would drive the team forward for years to come.”