Thursday’s surprising news that Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the 2024 F1 season shocked not only F1 but the entire sporting world. The move kicks off an exciting F1 season, but speculation is rife over who will step into the seat previously occupied by the seven-time world champion at Mercedes.
On Friday, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff made his first comment on the news. Mr. Wolf met with members of the media earlier in the day, and afterwards he spoke with: CNBC Sarah Eisen”cry on the street”, he outlined his thoughts on the present and future at Mercedes.
As Wolff pointed out, Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes at the end of 2024 was not a complete surprise.
“So when I signed my new contract last year, I wanted to keep it short to see what the future holds. That was the agreement with Lewis. It ended up probably in two years. “I knew it was going to happen, but I also knew there was a one-year option,” Wolff said. “The timing was a bit of a surprise, but the decision didn’t come out of the blue.”
In his mind, Hamilton’s decision was driven, at least in part, by a desire for change and a desire to try something new before his career waned.
“So I think a racing driver’s career ends at some point, and I think for Lewis he wanted a change, he wanted to do something, he wanted to try something new.”But the team previously have also dealt with situations like this and have changed their driver lineup.
“I’ve got a whole year left, so I’m going to give it my all right now,” Wolff added. “Of course, on the one hand we are pushing hard and saying we want to be successful with both drivers this year, but then we have to look at 2026, 2025, 26 and that becomes important. In our minds. ”
Photo by Edmund So/Eurasia Sports Images/Getty Images
In the hours since the surprising news broke, speculation has mounted that Hamilton’s decision was made with the team’s challenger, the W15, in mind for next Formula 1 season. Hamilton hasn’t won a grand prix since the end of the 2021 season, and the team struggled to get the physics right in W13 (the 2022 challenger) and last season’s W14.
Wolff said that despite the gap with Red Bull, he believes the team can find more performance in this season’s challenger, the W15. “Well, it’s clear that when you have stable regulations, it’s always difficult to keep up.” [Red Bull] … They’re in a league of their own, and so are most of us – and we finished second in the World Championship last year, followed by Ferrari and McLaren – and we’ve stepped up our game a little bit. Find more performance and more lap times just by doing it. And this is what we’re going to do with the George and Lewis machine, and this is kind of the single goal that I have at the moment as I look at the short and medium term. ”
As for what the future holds, Wolff knows he now holds the key to one of the most coveted seats in motorsport. Will the team look for veteran options or try to promote a younger driver from within the organization?
In Wolff’s words, the team has a chance to be “bold” with future decisions.
“Yes, as you can imagine, we are already considering that option. We like the opportunity and perhaps we will also act boldly,” said the Mercedes boss.
“Yeah, I think it’s the whole spectrum,” Wolff continued. “As you can imagine, there were quite a lot of calls and WhatsApps on the first day yesterday. , and the rest of the spectrum, I think there’s still a lot of performance and knowledge to go. So I don’t know where this will end. But the next few months are going to be interesting in evaluating all those options. ”
Silly season is already here before the cars take to the track.
You can watch Wolf’s entire segment on “Squak on the Street” here.
