‘I heard the bells ringing’ – Wolff reveals who first told him Hamilton had decided to leave Mercedes for Ferrari

Toto Wolff has opened up on how he first learned that Lewis Hamilton was set to leave Mercedes to join Ferrari in 2025, with the team boss initially hearing from Carlos Sainz’s father that the move was happening.
While past rumours surrounding the possibility of Hamilton partnering with the Scuderia had surfaced but never flourished into reality, the scenario looked to be more realistic this time around – something confirmed to Wolff when he received a call from Carlos Sainz Senior.
READ MORE: Wolff concedes it was ‘for the good’ of Hamilton to move from Mercedes to Ferrari
“I heard the bells ringing two weeks before [Lewis told me the news],” Wolff explained during an appearance on the High Performance Podcast. “The old man Sainz called me and said, ‘This is what’s happening’.
“And then there were a few drivers that rang me up that didn’t before, so I thought, ‘Okay, there’s something going on there’. I sent a text to [Ferrari boss] Fred Vasseur saying, ‘You’re taking our driver?’ – didn’t get any response, very unusual for Fred, he’s a good friend. So I saw it coming.
“When Lewis arrived in the house like he did so many years before, we had a bit of small talk like we always do about the Christmas holidays and all of that. Then I said, ‘Well, we are recruiting from Ferrari now, we got this guy’ and Lewis said, ‘Oh, there’s something I need to tell you’.
“When he said that, that initial moment was a little bit of [thinking], ‘So this is really happening, I can’t imagine you anywhere else than Mercedes’. But instantly it’s like, what are we doing with this? And there is always opportunity.”
Quizzed on whether he had been tempted to contact Hamilton during that two-week window prior to hearing the news directly from him, Wolff responded: “No, I think that was a situation that I just wanted to see how it was happening, and leave it to him and to Fred to tell me that they were doing this.”
READ MORE: Wolff took ‘five minutes’ to choose Antonelli after Hamilton departure news as he shuts down future pursuit of Verstappen
The news came as something of a surprise to the F1 world, with it bringing to an end Hamilton’s long relationship with Mercedes that had yielded so much success. But when asked how he managed to project calm in the moment of finding out, Wolff insisted that this was not an issue.
“I had much worse in my life happening, like real drama and trauma,” the Austrian said. “This is not even moving the needle. Lewis is a friend and will forever be a friend – we’ve had 12 years in the team together, so that was just an unusual thought of ‘this is ending’, but not challenging in whichever way.
“So no, that wasn’t a problem. It’s just a new situation, it has risks and opportunities – risks in the sense [of] how do I inform the sponsors as quickly as possible – because it was leaking – and on the other side, what are we doing about next year?”
Wolff also decided against trying to persuade Hamilton to stay, a situation that bore parallels to one he had previously discussed with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
READ MORE: ‘It’s going to be amazing for me’ – Leclerc on the impact of Hamilton joining Ferrari as he opens up on times he ‘hated’ Sainz
“I think if someone decides to go then you need to let them go,” Wolff conceded. “I had a chat with Pep Guardiola a long time ago – he’s a friend – and I said, ‘What do you do if this and that player leaves?’, and he said, ‘What do you mean [what do] I do?’.
“I said, ‘Well, do you try to convince them to stay?’. [He said], ‘No. If somebody thinks he can play elsewhere better or earn more, you’ve just got to let them go’.
“And it is something I embrace in the same way here – somebody wants to go then let’s make it as good as possible for each of the parties.”
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