Lewis Hamilton shocked the motorsports world Thursday when the seven-time Formula One champion said he will leave Mercedes at the end of the season to join Ferrari, which had tried to land Hamilton before he signed his latest contract extension with the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton surprised Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff when he broke the news over breakfast that he was leaving the F1 team for Ferrari but there is “no grudge” between them, Wolff said Friday.
Wolff said he had heard rumors that Hamilton might leave but didn’t know for sure until the F1 great confirmed it in a meeting over breakfast on Wednesday at Wolff’s home in Oxford, England.
“The surprise was that I’ve heard the rumors a couple of days earlier but wanted to wait for the breakfast we had planned, and it was Wednesday morning, and this is when he broke the news,” Wolff said Friday.
“But, you know, you can be very straightforward with me because I’m very straightforward too. So once he said, ‘This is what I’m trying to do,’ that was the fact. I didn’t try to convince him otherwise.”
Wolff added that he still considers Hamilton a friend. “In the future, we will discuss whether this could have been done in a different way or not, but I hold no grudge.”
In a glimpse into the shock within the wider Mercedes team, Wolff said Hamilton’s longtime race engineer Peter Bonnington — known as ‘Bono’ in their conversations over the radio during races — replied “Is it April 1?” when told Hamilton would leave.
Hamilton only finalized a two-year extension with Mercedes at the end of August. Mercedes said Thursday the 39-year-old British driver has activated a release clause in that new deal that will allow him to join Ferrari in 2025.