Toto Wolff has revealed what he told Lewis Hamilton following his bombshell news of joining Ferrari from 2025.
The news of Hamilton joining Scuderia Ferrari shook the world as it was in a way unexpected.
The seven-time world champion will be partnering with Charles Leclerc starting from 2025, meanwhile, Russell will have a new partner in the next season.
The hunt for the new driver at Mercedes is still ongoing as the season is underway.
“I think it was difficult for him to really tell me because he left for the Christmas holiday and was Mercedes forever,” Wolff tols Fox News Australia at the Australian Grand Prix.
“Normally that’s a time where we don’t speak a lot because he’s gone, because otherwise we’re speaking every day. And then he came back and said, can we have a coffee? He came for the coffee, that’s the normal thing we’re doing when the season kicks off, and he said, ‘I’m leaving to Ferrari’. And I said, ‘really?’
“And not that it shocked me, because we knew that we have a short-term contract, but the timing at the beginning of the season.
“I said, ‘why at the beginning of the season?’ He said he just wanted to have it out and not have it as a burden, emotional burden.
“And then you got to stay pragmatic after five minutes [of] shock and disbelief it was like, ‘okay what are we doing announcement, what are we doing going forward into the season?’
“And he said, ‘well the announcement is a tricky thing because I think it’s leaking’, so it didn’t give me lots of options.”
Hamilton DNFed at Australian Grand Prix along with Max Verstappen, who had previously won both races of this season.
Currently, the seven-time world champion has 8 points.
“I think first I can’t imagine him in red,” Wolff added. I don’t think it suits him, but I think that picture is going to be interesting.
“And then I told him, you’ve got to really picture our rear wing because that’s the perspective you’re going to have.”
source - motorsportweek