Toto Wolff says the fact that Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are jointy launching a diversity foundation means there is a long-term commitment between the two parties.
When Mercedes announced that Lewis Hamilton will remain with Mercedes for 2021, they also announced the creation of a joint diversity foundation. Now Toto Wolff reveals the idea came from Daimler Chairman of the Board of Management Ola Källenius.
“I think that the idea of the foundation – credit to where credit is due – came from Ola Källenius, when we discussed between Lewis, Ola and myself at the very beginning,” explains the Austrian.
“Lewis was very enthusiastic about the idea. We are going to run it jointly and it also shows that there is an alliance in the relationship much beyond 2021, but in the long-term.
“We invested substantial million euro amounts into the foundation which is a real commitment from us to have an impact.”
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Wolff goes on to explain how the team wanted to make a bigger impact by putting a significant amount of money behind the initiative.
“We felt that making a real financial contribution to our diversity and equality project was an important statement.
“So also on that topic, it felt the right thing to do, and it shows our long-term commitment to each other because it is a multi-million investment in the Foundation, which we are going to run jointly.
“It was a joint idea between Lewis and us. We felt it was a very important topic to address. We are already very active in this field as Mercedes, and the specific projects need to be defined together.
“That’s not going to change from one week to the other,” concluded Wolff.