Hamilton blindsided Wolff 24 hours before Ferrari announcement

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Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari for 2025 came as a complete shock to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff when the seven-time world champion broke the news at the Austrian’s home on Wednesday morning.
Telegraph Sport understands Hamilton blindsided Wolff at a pre-arranged meeting at the latter’s Oxford home before Thursday’s official announcement sent Formula One into meltdown.
The news leaking out in Italy on Thursday morning meant the Brackley outfit had to scramble to get their ducks in a row, calling a meeting of the team’s staff at 2pm when Wolff informed them of the driver’s intention to leave.
Mercedes and Ferrari eventually released official statements later that evening, with Ferrari stating that they had signed Hamilton, the most successful driver in the history of the sport, to a “multi-year” deal from 2025.
The fact that the Italian team were prepared to offer the 39-year-old a deal that will take him through to 2026 at least, the first year of big new regulations in the sport, was understood to be instrumental in Hamilton’s decision to move to Maranello.
Mercedes were not prepared to offer Hamilton more than a two-year deal to the end of 2025. They might well have renewed again, but there is no guarantee of that.
Either way, Hamilton’s transfer – which is likely to put him back on a par with Red Bull’s triple world champion Max Verstappen at £50 million per season – sent shockwaves through the sport, and added nearly $7 billion to Ferrari’s market valuation as the announcement coincided with the release of strong latest financial results.
It was only last August that Hamilton finally agreed his latest deal with Mercedes after months of tortuous negotiations. He has driven for the German manufacturer his entire Formula One career as they were the engine supplier to McLaren during his time there.
“I’m grateful to the team who have supported me both on and off the track,” Hamilton said last August. “Our story isn’t finished, we are determined to achieve more together and we won’t stop until we do.”
But it turned out Hamilton had inserted an exit clause into the contract for the end of 2024.
Mercedes always knew there was the potential that he might trigger it if he felt he would have a better chance somewhere else of securing that record eighth world title he was so controversially denied in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
But Wolff was understood to be completely taken by surprise when Hamilton told him on Wednesday that he intended to exercise it.
The Austrian, who owns a third of Mercedes F1, only recently signed a new three-year contract extension himself, breaking the news in an interview with Telegraph Sport in which he said he was confident that Hamilton could win that eighth world title at Brackley.
“The answer is clearly yes in capital letters,” Wolff said. “There is a reason Lewis is a seven-time world champion, and has broken all the records… his ability is on a different level. If we are able to give him a car that he actually feels, that drives in a way that he can trust, he will be on the level that’s needed to win the championship. Thirty-nine is no age.”
After the initial shock, Wolff is said to be now be sanguine about Hamilton’s decision. The Austrian will speak to the media on Friday morning via a conference call.
Hamilton will replace Spaniard Carlos Sainz at Ferrari next year. “Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” the Spaniard said after Ferrari’s announcement. “We still have a long season ahead of us and, like always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the Tifosi all around the world.
It is unclear where Sainz will go, or indeed who will take Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes alongside George Russell. Alex Albon, a close friend of Russell’s and on the books at Mercedes-powered Williams, is the early bookmakers’ favourite. “News about my future will be announced in due course,” Sainz added.
In a statement last night, Hamilton said he would be “forever grateful” to Mercedes, with whom he won six of his seven drivers’ titles and 82 of his 103 wins.
“I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together,” he said. “Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge.
“I will be forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together. I am 100 per cent committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
It is unclear when Hamilton will address the media in person for the first time, but the launch of the new Mercedes car on Valentine’s Day, February 14, now promises to be a rather awkward affair.
That will be a virtual launch with media not permitted to ask questions.
Hamilton’s first live media session will be at pre-season testing in Bahrain from Feb 21-Feb 23. The first race of the season, also in Bahrain, takes place on March 2.
Lewis has a racer’s instinct as to which way the wind is blowing and I think he may have actually pulled a blinder – just like he did when he left McLaren and went to Mercedes.
The answer is clearly yes in capital letters. There is a reason Lewis is a seven-time world champion, and has broken all the records… his ability is on a different level. If we are able to give him a car that he actually feels, that drives in a way that he can trust, he will be on the level that’s needed to win the championship. 39 is no age.
Read more here.
🚨 Announcement 🚨 Two weeks to go until we launch the RB20 🔜 pic.twitter.com/eYp6JMyfoQ
Mercedes employees in Brackley have been told that Hamilton will be leaving at the end of the 2024 season.
Still awaiting public confirmation from Ferrari and Mercedes.
For eight glorious years, the Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes partnership was Formula One’s most dominant and most successful. It resulted in a staggering 82 wins together and six world drivers’ championships. 
Hamilton’s impending move to rivals Ferrari for next season is a damning indictment of how far Mercedes have fallen since those glory days and, worse, his assessment of the team’s chances of returning back to the top.
Read the rest of Luke Slater’s thoughts here.
Telegraph Sport understands an official announcement is expected this evening confirming Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari.
He’s had a couple of years of not winning a race and we’ve seen a couple of other changes he’s made…and he’s probably gone ‘I’m going to stop focus on all of the things outside of racing and get back to Lewis Hamilton the racing driver’.
I think this is a wonderful opportunity to motivate him and energise him for this phase of his career.
Back to this feeling soon 💪 pic.twitter.com/mh33HZ90Bw
… Pre-season F1 testing begins on Feb 21 in Bahrain. Bahrain also hosts the first of a record 24 races on March 2
Everything you need to know about the 2024 season is right here.
In January, Tom Cary revealed Hamilton had brought back to his inner circle, friend and former right-hand man Marc Hynes.
Hynes is a former British Formula Three champion who has known the Mercedes driver since they were junior racers, and who used to run Hamilton’s Project Forty Four management company. The pair enjoyed a fruitful five years together from 2016 until 2021. Hamilton won four of his seven world titles with the former racer by his side until Hynes left suddenly on the eve of the 2021 season to focus on his own business.
Read more here. 
For Lewis, I could not recommend to any driver more than if you can at one time in your career take the chance to drive for Ferrari. It is an outstanding experience. Driving for Ferrari is very emotionally driven. Some are cold to it, some react very much toward it. 
Me, I was affected very much because I love Ferrari, I loved the Italian mentality, the brand and I think Lewis would. Most of the drivers love it but it has to be right on timing.
Is the timing right for Hamilton?
Should Hamilton leave in 2025, Russell will become Mercedes’s lead driver. In August, he signed a new two-year extension to his contract but will almost certainly be tied to a new deal sooner rather than later.
The likes of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon will be among the drivers vying to be his team-mate.
CONFIRMED: All 10 launch dates for 2024! 🗓#F1 pic.twitter.com/DzA653e9it
I think naturally when you’re in contract negotiations there’s always going to be speculation. 
Unless you hear it from me, then that’s what it is.
We are still waiting for Hamilton to speak on this…
Just been for a run. Have I missed anything?
This is an absolute bombshell on the eve of the season. So many fascinating aspects to it, not least what it says about Hamilton’s confidence in the Mercedes rebuild. Remember, Toto Wolff and James Allison have only just signed new deals, committing themselves to Mercedes as the sport gears up for new regulations in 2026.
Hamilton is also potentially throwing away a lifetime’s association with Mercedes (who were engine partners when he was at McLaren). The ‘family’ to which he has often referred. All the work they have done to support his Mission 44 charity etc etc.
Hamilton to Ferrari has always been a possibility though. He has never been shy of admitting that the Scuderia held a fascination for him. That he is and always has been a fan of the team and their iconic cars. But as time went on, the rumours that he might go felt less and less likely. Hamilton effectively said that that ‘ship had sailed’ on the last few occasions the links came up. Apparently not. 
What a move. The most successful driver of all time at the most famous team in the sport, for one final hurrah. Hamilton will be 40 by the time the 2025 season rolls around.
What does it mean for Hamilton’s chances of winning that record eighth title? Effectively, he is rolling the dice that Ferrari will give him a better shot of getting it done than Mercedes will. 
Many would question his wisdom given Mercedes’ success over the last decade relative to Ferrari’s. The Brackley team were still good enough to beat Ferrari to second in the championship last year, remember, even with a substandard car.
Hamilton hasn’t even driven their latest machine yet, which has undergone a radical overhaul after successive seasons of being trounced by Red Bull. Toto Wolff sounded quite positive about its prospects in a recent interview with the Telegraph.
Hamilton has form on when to jump ship, though. When he moved from McLaren to Mercedes everyone told him he was mad. He won six drivers’ championships at Brackley. Have Ferrari managed to convince him they are in a better position than Mercedes going into the big regulation change in 2026?
So many questions. Who will Mercedes bring in alongside George Russell next year? How will Russell and Hamilton rub along this year? Will Mercedes start to favour the young man? This season has just had a rocket put under it.
I talk to him at every GP, he raced for me 20 years ago and we are still close.
Clearly, if they (the media) see us together in the paddock, there’s a lot of fuss, but the relationship has remained. I don’t want to compare him to our drivers, it wouldn’t make sense.
I wonder if the possibility of reuniting in 2025 was part of their talks?
Hamilton’s likely switch to Ferrari underlines a fundamental truth about Mercedes’ competitiveness in the last two years. Whatever faith he had in the team is clearly not enough to keep him there. There has been plenty of talk of promise and performance gains since 2022 but it has not materialised in any prolonged way, with just one win in two seasons. 
Still, it’s not like he will be moving to a team on the cusp of titles, Ferrari have plenty of work to do to catch Red Bull too. Perhaps he saw what Frederic Vasseur – his team boss at ART in his GP2 title year in 2006 no less – did at Ferrari last year and liked it. If ever there was a “right” time for Hamilton to move to the Maranello team, this is it. 
I’m so looking forward to this. We’ve asked him for years about it and he seemed nailed on at Merc for life, and always dismissive of moving. 
Hamilton and Leclerc in scarlet, that’s a story.
Hamilton signed a contract extension that was expected to keep him at Mercedes until the end of the 2025 season.
At the time, he said: 
We have never been hungrier to win. We have learnt from every success but also every setback. We continue to chase our dreams, we continue to fight no matter the challenge and we will win again.
I’m grateful to the team who have supported me both on and off the track. Our story isn’t finished, we are determined to achieve more together and we won’t stop until we do.
That doesn’t sound like someone who was planning to leave after one year. So what changed for Hamilton?
Lewis Hamilton is expected to make a shock move from Mercedes to Formula One rivals Ferrari for the 2025 season.
Telegraph Sport understands Mercedes have put out an internal announcement with everyone called to a team briefing at 14:00 with team principal Toto Wolff and technical director James Allison. All team members are encouraged to attend.
Several reports claim talks between the seven-time world champion have been held with the Italian team with a view of signing a deal ahead of next year.
Hamilton has just signed a new two-year deal with Mercedes but there are claims the second year was optional. Ferrari want the British driver to join Charles Leclerc with Carlos Sainz only contracted until the end of this upcoming season.
The 39-year-old has not won a race for two seasons since being denied a record eighth title in 2021 in controversial circumstances by Max Verstappen in the final race of the season. He finished third in last year’s drivers’ championship after achieving six podium finishes.
Reacting to the reports, Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok said: “Biggest driver move shock since….. Lewis left Mclaren for Mercedes! Thought that Lewis would end his career at Merc but a chance to have a blast in the red car may have lured him in.”
When contacted by Telegraph Sport, Mercedes declined to comment.