Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has shared the one question he asked Lewis Hamilton after learning of his intention to join Ferrari.
Hamilton made the sensational decision to leave the Silver Arrows for the Scuderia before the 2024 season had got underway.
And speaking to Fox Sports Australia, Wolff has now revealed details of his conversation with Hamilton before the announcement.
The 39-year-old has won six world championships with Mercedes since joining in 2014, more than any other driver has won with a single outfit.
However, the once-dominant German manufacturer has struggled since the regulations changed in 2022.
Mercedes fell to third in the constructors’ standings that year behind champions Red Bull and Ferrari.
George Russell claimed their one and only win of the ground effect era to date at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
While they improved to second last year, they were still a record 451 points adrift of the Bulls in the table.
And Hamilton may feel vindicated after seeing the team take a step in the wrong direction at the start of 2024.
Off the back of a double DNF at the Australian Grand Prix, when Hamilton’s engine failed and Russell crashed out, they sit fourth in the table with just 26 points on the board.
While Ferrari have not yet been able to challenge Red Bull for a sustained period, the 103-time race-winner knows there will be another major rule change in 2026.
Toto Wolff questioned timing of Lewis Hamilton Ferrari call
Wolff insists he wasn’t shocked by Hamilton’s departure in itself given the nature of his contract.
He signed a new two-year deal in 2023, but the second year of that agreement was optional.
The one thing the team boss didn’t understand at first, though, was the timing.
Hamilton explained that he didn’t want to be carrying an ’emotional burden’ throughout the season in keeping the move under wraps.
Wolff said: “I think it was difficult for him to really tell me because he left for the Christmas holiday and was Mercedes forever.
“Normally that’s a time where we don’t speak a lot because he’s gone, because otherwise we’re speaking every day. And then he came back and said, can we have a coffee?
“He came for the coffee, that’s the normal thing we’re doing when the season kicks off, and he said, ‘I’m leaving to Ferrari’. And I said, ‘really?’
“And not that it shocked me, because we knew that we have a short-term contract, but the timing at the beginning of the season.
“I said, ‘why at the beginning of the season?’ He said he just wanted to have it out and not have it as a burden, emotional burden.
“And then you got to stay pragmatic after five minutes shock and disbelief it was like, ‘okay what are we doing announcement, what are we doing going forward into the season?’
“And he said, ‘well the announcement is a tricky thing because I think it’s leaking’, so it didn’t give me lots of options.”
Who will replace Hamilton at Mercedes?
After Wolff overcome that initial ‘shock’, he quickly had to shift gears and start thinking about possible replacements.
He must first decide if he wants to back Russell to be the team’s number one.
In addition to his victory at Interlagos, the 26-year-old has taken one pole position and 11 podiums in his career.
Wolff could potentially pair him with Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who’s just started out in F2.
However, he could also target a bigger name to sit on a level playing field with Russell.
The Austrian’s dream target is world champion Max Verstappen, and one report claims he’s ‘increasingly likely’ to succeed Hamilton.
Elsewhere, former engineer and BBC pundit Marc Priestley says the team are bound be ‘looking at’ Australian GP winner Carlos Sainz.
Sainz will surrender his Ferrari seat to Hamilton at the end of the season after the team opted to stick with Charles Leclerc instead.
And F1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds has urged the team to sign the ‘incredibly fast’ Fernando Alonso.
More than half the grid are out of contract for 2025, and many drivers may be waiting for a decision from Wolff before they commit to another team.
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