Lewis Hamilton opens up on ‘terrifying’ Toto Wolff meeting after Ferrari contract signed

Lewis Hamilton has admitted it was “terrifying” to inform Toto Wolff that he would be leaving Mercedes after agreeing to join Ferrari for the F1 2025 season.

Hamilton rocked the F1 world in February by announcing that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, ending his long and successful association with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton: Telling Toto Wolff about Ferrari F1 2025 move was ‘terrifying’

The British driver has claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man to surpass 100 grand prix victories and pole positions, since arriving from McLaren in 2013, with the German manufacturer’s engines powering each of Hamilton’s 350 F1 appearances since 2007.

Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes came after his first-ever winless season in 2022 was followed by another last year as the team struggled to adjust to F1’s ground-effect regulations.

Hamilton’s decision to part ways with Mercedes came less than six months after he signed a two-year extension to his contract, having activated a break clause in the deal announced by the team at the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s home race, in August 2023.

Now 39, Hamilton returned to the top step of the podium with record-extending victories at Silverstone, where he ended a 945-day winless streak with an emotional triumph at his home race, and Spa.

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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com the morning after Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari was announced, Wolff revealed that the seven-time World Champion “broke the news” of his decision to leave over breakfast around 36 hours before the move was made official.

Wolff disclosed that he had heard rumours that Hamilton would be leaving “a couple of days earlier” but “wanted to wait” for the driver himself to inform him during their planned meeting at his house in Oxford.

Hamilton has admitted it was a “terrifying” experience to tell Wolff that he would be leaving Mercedes – and revealed that he has dreamed of racing for Ferrari since watching Michael Schumacher, the only other driver to win seven F1 titles, storm to success with the Scuderia in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Hamilton memorably replaced Schumacher at Mercedes at the end of the 2012 season, with his relationship with Mercedes proving the most successful team/driver partnership in F1 history.

He told the Times : “It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions from the moment I signed the contract — telling my boss, that was terrifying.

“But it is so exciting because I remember as a kid watching Michael. Every driver watches that car and you’re like: ‘What would it be like to sit in the red cockpit?’”

Mercedes confirmed at the recent Italian Grand Prix that teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Hamilton for F1 2025, with the Italian stepping up from F1 feeder series Formula 2.

Wolff went on to claim at Monza that the decision to promote Antonelli was made within “five minutes” of Hamilton communicating his desire to leave.

Speaking hours after the announcement at Monza, Hamilton confessed to being “quite emotional” as the seat he has held since 2013 was allocated to another driver.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “I’ve known for ages.

“I knew it would be announced this morning. I definitely woke up and it was very, very, very surreal to just have, at least officially confirmed, my seat is going that I held onto for so long.

“So it was quite emotional this morning, but I’m really, really happy for Kimi and for this team – I know Kimi is going to do a great job.”

Asked if he is becoming more emotional as the races tick by towards the end of his Mercedes career, he added: “It’s been there all year. Every single race you turn up.

“I love my team so much. We have been through a hell of a lot together so it will be emotional every single race.

“Because every race we do is the last time at that particular place. Every race we get closer and closer to the last time I’ll be in that Mercedes.

“It’s going to be tough, but my focus is just to do my best job for the team and to finish on a high.”

Hamilton elaborated on his emotions at the end of the Italian GP weekend, with the final European-based race of the F1 2024 season marking the last time he would use his room within Mercedes’ own hospitality unit on a race weekend.

“Leaving Monza, it hit me that it was the last European race this year,” he wrote in a social media post. “The last time I’ll be in my room in engineering that’s been my home for 12 years.

“This is such a unique time in my life, one that continues to bring out a lot of emotions. What I feel the most is pride and gratitude.

“The memories will last forever, as will the memories I make next year.”

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