Mercedes boss Toto Wolff opens up on the 'bruising' nature of Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently opened up about how Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari announcement affected him personally and professionally. He explained how he had to manage the team and the company after the explosive reveal.

On February 1, 2024, even before the teams started revealing their new F1 cars, Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton announced that they would join forces from 2025 onwards. This meant that the seven-time world champion would leave Mercedes after 12 successful years with the team.

This forced the Silver Arrows to find a new driver that could fill the shoes of one of the most successful F1 drivers in the world. In addition, Toto Wolff recently explained how he managed the team after the announcement.

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports F1, the Austrian billionaire explained that the only aspect of the announcement that bruised him was the time crunch. He said that he did not have enough time to call the stakeholders and sponsors and hold meetings to explain the massive move to them.

Managing Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton's departure news was the hardest according to Wolff.

“There is a professional and a personal relationship and when he signed a very short-term contract [last year], it was clear that could happen. What was bruising is that I didn’t have any time to react. It was basically the same day,” Wolff said.

“And when I said, ‘Okay, how are we announcing this? The beginning of the season or mid-season?’ It was clear it was leaking from Ferrari. And it was happening to fall on the day of earnings. That didn’t give me enough time to do some stakeholder management, call our sponsors, the shareholders and explain what was happening. That was the only thing,” he added.

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Toto Wolff understands why Lewis Hamilton wanted to join Ferrari in the latter stages of his career

After talking about how he managed Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari announcement, he explained that he tried to understand the British driver's point of view and why he wanted to join the Italian giants.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he stated that when a driver is in the last stages of his career, he would want to race for Ferrari before hanging his boots. He also touched on the financial aspect of Hamilton's move. He added that he tried to wrap his head around the reason why the seven-time world champion left Mercedes.

“When you’re in the last phase of your career, everybody wants to wear red overalls with a yellow prancing horse. Probably the financial terms were also very positive. So I kind of got my head around it and why he’s doing that, and I have absolute peace with him in my relationship goes much deeper,” Wolff said.

As of now, Lewis Hamilton continues to drive for Mercedes and is eighth in the drivers' championship table with 73 points.