Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff’s bond has been quite strong over the years. However, the seven-time champion’s decision to jump ship to Ferrari has reportedly turned their relationship sour. Ever since Hamilton made the Ferrari announcement, he’s been rumored to be alienated by his team. Some reports also claim him to be less favored than his teammate George Russell this season. In fact, this serious suggestion was formalized with an anonymous email to F1 entities from a whistleblower.
The email suggested how the Brackley outfit is sabotaging the seven-time champion’s season while pooling their efforts to promote Russell. Mercedes took this allegation seriously and even called for an investigation to catch the perpetrator.
Regardless of all this chaos, has the Ferrari move affected his relationship with his strongest ally Toto Wolff? As per his candid confession during a chat with Martin Brundle seen on Sky Sports F1’s official X page, it hasn’t!
Wolff said, “The personal relationship doesn’t suffer. If I put myself in his shoes I can understand that the team wasn’t doing very well. So I kind of got my head around why he’s doing that and I have my absolute peace with him and my relationship goes much deeper.
“I’ve been 12 years, we’ve been friends and allies and brothers in crime and he’s going to be a competitor in the car. But we haven’t divorced as friends.”, the Austrian added.
“We haven’t divorced as friends.”
Toto Wolff discusses how bruised he was after Lewis Hamilton announced his Ferrari move. Tune into Sky Sports F1 coverage tomorrow to watch the full interview ️ pic.twitter.com/4AJrjN1z9F
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 29, 2024
Wolff admitted the timing of it, the surprise and shock factor attached to the announcement hurt. So it wasn’t the announcement itself, just how the things unfolded could’ve been different from the Austrian boss’ perspective. Moreover, he also revealed the Ferrari move was not part of Hamilton’s plan from the beginning.
Lewis Hamilton did not have a move to Ferrari in 2025 as part of the plan from the beginning
No one knows what made the 39-year-old suddenly change his mind. However, moving to Maranello was not in the plans from the beginning. Toto Wolff revealed when Hamilton signed the 1+1 year contract it was to safeguard himself.
It wasn’t so he could keep the Brackley outfit in the dark because he wanted to stay. However, at some point after the contract extension and before the start of the new season, the Briton changed his mind.
As quoted by Si.com, Wolff revealed, “He said he was going to stay and then he decided to go. But people change their minds and circumstances change and you have to respect that. Today’s opinion might be different tomorrow and I have no hard feelings.”
However, it’s a professional move, and the Brit’s in the absolute last phase of his career. Hamilton perhaps saw no light at the end of the tunnel with Mercedes. So, after spending two years trying to solve the problems with the car, he changed his mind to take his talents elsewhere and try to win before it was too late.
