Toto Wolff has opened up on how he first discovered that Lewis Hamilton was set to depart Mercedes to hitch Ferrari in 2025, with the staff boss initially listening to from Carlos Sainz’s father that the transfer was taking place.
Whereas previous rumours surrounding the potential for Hamilton partnering with the Scuderia had surfaced however by no means flourished into actuality, the state of affairs seemed to be extra sensible this time round – one thing confirmed to Wolff when he obtained a name from Carlos Sainz Senior.
READ MORE: Wolff concedes it was ‘for the great’ of Hamilton to maneuver from Mercedes to Ferrari
“I heard the bells ringing two weeks earlier than [Lewis told me the news],” Wolff defined throughout an look on the Excessive Efficiency Podcast. “The previous man Sainz known as me and mentioned, ‘That is what’s taking place’.
“After which there have been a couple of drivers that rang me up that didn’t earlier than, so I believed, ‘Okay, there’s one thing happening there’. I despatched a textual content to [Ferrari boss] Fred Vasseur saying, ‘You’re taking our driver?’ – didn’t get any response, very uncommon for Fred, he’s good friend. So I noticed it coming.
“When Lewis arrived in the home like he did so a few years earlier than, we had a little bit of small speak like we all the time do in regards to the Christmas holidays and all of that. Then I mentioned, ‘Nicely, we’re recruiting from Ferrari now, we obtained this man’ and Lewis mentioned, ‘Oh, there’s one thing I have to inform you’.
