As the 2024 season nears the end, Lewis Hamilton will be looking forward to starting fresh with Ferrari in 2025. In a recent High Performance podcast, team principal Toto Wolff revealed revealed it was Carlos Sainz Sr. who leaked information of Hamilton’s Ferrari move.

Hamilton and Wolff have been close friends since the Briton joined the Brackley-based F1 team in 2013.

The duo, along with the 2016 champion Nico Rosberg, went on to dominate a large part of the previous decade, with Hamilton winning six driver’s titles (2014, 2015, and 2017 to 2020) and the Wolff-led Mercedes winning eight consecutive constructor championship (from 2014 to 2021).

However, since the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations in 2022 and the subsequent decline in the German team’s performance, the bond between Wolff and Hamilton began to fall apart, with the latter deciding to move to Ferrari for the 2025 season.

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During a candid conversation on the High Performance podcast, Wolff admitted that he came to know about Hamilton’s move through World Rally legend Carlos Sainz Sr.

“The old man Sainz called me and said this is what’s happening. Then there were a few drivers that rang me up that didn’t before,” Wolff said.
“(I) sent a text to Fred Vasseur saying ‘you’re taking our driver?’ “I didn’t get any response, very unusual for Fred. He’s a good friend,” he added, explaining the situation.
Wolff’s statement was shared on X by a Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-AMG fan page. Here’s a look at the post, captioned:

“Toto Wolff reveals that Carlos Sainz Sr. tipped him off about Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, which he tried to confirm from Fred Vasseur”
“It also didn’t give me any time to react” – Toto Wolff on missing out on opportunity to contact Lando Norris or Charles Leclerc as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement
Much like the entire F1 community, Mercedes-AMG’s team principal Toto Wolff was also surprised with Lewis Hamilton’s decision to move to Ferrari for the 2025 season.

The Austrian team boss claimed he missed an opportunity to contact Lando Norris or Charles Leclerc as a replacement for the seven-time world champion in Mercedes’ new all-access book, Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane.

“I absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go. 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,” Wolff shared.
With just three races to go in the 2024 season, Mercedes is placed fourth in the constructors championship. Meanwhile George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are in sixth and seventh positions, respectively, in the 2024 driver’s table.

Edited by Pratham K Sharma