© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Toto Wolff says he “just couldn’t understand why” Lewis Hamilton would “change to another team before we knew if we were going to be competitive”.
In Mercedes’ new all-access book ‘Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane’, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff talks about the impact of Lewis Hamilton’s sudden decision to leave the team.
“I absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go,” the Austrian said.
“I just couldn’t understand why he’d change to another team before we knew if we were going to be competitive.
“It also didn’t give me any time to react, I had to emergency call our partners, and I possibly missed out on negotiating with other drivers who had signed contracts a few weeks earlier like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.”
However, Toto added this also allowed the team to focus on a new generation of drivers.
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“I like the situation. It helps us because it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport’s most iconic driver that we want to stop.
“There’s a reason why we only signed a one-plus-one-year contract. We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life.
“I need to look at the next generation. It’s the same in football. Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola.
“They anticipated it in the performance of their top stars and brought in junior players that drove the team for the next years,” Wolff concluded.
