Just before the 2024 season started, Lewis Hamilton shocked the F1 world by announcing he would leave Mercedes at the end of the year, despite having a contract that could have kept him with the team until 2025.

The Briton decided to leave the team he has won 6 of his 7 world champion titles with after 12 years long partnership to join Ferrari.

Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, admitted he had already suspected Hamilton might want to leave as he had previously spoken with Carlos Sainz Sr., who mentioned that his son, Carlos Sainz Jr., would be leaving Ferrari.

However, even while knowing this, he decided not to try to convince the seven-time world champion to stay, seeing it as a natural move for both, the driver and the team.

Hamilton’s decision, however, created challenges for Mercedes. The timing of his announcement left Wolff without many choices to replace him as just days before, two top drivers Mercedes was interested in—Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc—had extended their contracts with McLaren and Ferrari. 

Wolff also addressed troubles with sponsors that came with it but at the same time felt, that Hamilton’s decision allowed him to avoid a tough conversation about the driver’s age as the Briton approaches 40 and Wolff stands behind the opinion that young drivers are the sport’s future.

“I absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go,” Wolff discusses in a new book titled Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane.

“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.

“[But] I like the situation. It helps us because it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport’s most iconic driver that we want to stop.

“There’s a reason why we only signed a one-plus-one-year contract,” Wolff added regarding the deal Mercedes signed with Hamilton in 2023.

“We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life.

“So I need to look at the next generation. It’s the same in football. Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola. They anticipated it in the performance of their top stars and brought in junior players that drove the team for the next years.”

Mercedes ultimately gave a chance to young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is ready to showcase his talent in Formula 1 next year, with ambitious goals set on securing race wins.