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Toto Wolff says Carlos Sainz Sr. first informed him that Lewis Hamilton was moving to Ferrari, and reveals how his first conversation with Lewis went.
Word of Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari in 2025 was first leaked by the press ahead of the 2024 season start, and the rumours were quickly followed by an official confirmation from Mercedes.
At the time it appeared that Mercedes had also learned of Lewis’ departure from the media, however, team boss Toto Wolff now reveals that rally legend Carlos Sainz Sr., the father of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, was the first person to let him know that Hamilton made a deal with the Italian team.
“So I heard the bells ringing two weeks before,” Wolff said on the High Performance Podcast.
“Yeah, the old man Sainz called me and said, this is what’s happening. And then there were a few drivers’ dads rang me up that didn’t before. So I thought, Okay…there’s something going on there.
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“And then I sent a text to [Ferrari team boss] Fred Vasseur saying: ‘You’re taking our driver?’
“Didn’t get any response. Very unusual for Fred. He’s a good friend. So yeah, I saw it coming.”
Toto then described his first meeting with Lewis ahead of the 2024 season.
“When Lewis arrived in the house, like he did so many years before, we had a bit of a small talk, like we always do about the Christmas holidays and all of that.
“Then I said, ‘Well, we’re recruiting from Ferrari now. We got this guy.’ And Lewis was, ‘Oh, there’s something I need to tell you.’
“And yeah, when he said that, that initial moment was a little bit of… so this is really happening?”
Asked if Lewis’ decision shocked him, Toto said it was not something that can compare to other actually traumatic events that happened in his private life in his early years.
“Well, I had much worse in my life, happening, like real drama and trauma. This is not even moving the needle.
“It’s just a new situation. It has risks and opportunities, risks in the sense of how do I inform the sponsors as quickly as possible? Because it was leaking…
“And on the other side, what are we doing about next year?” the Austrian concluded.
