2024-02-22 14:18:00
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Ferrari boss let driver announce to Mercedes F1
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Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has revealed that a late response from Frédéric Vasseur suggested to him that Lewis Hamilton would leave for Ferrari next season. Wolff admitted the news had not come as a surprise and confirmed the relationship with Hamilton remained intact.
“That surprised me a lot,” Wolff admits. “We went on vacation thinking he would stay, even if the ‘1+1’ contract allowed him to be free. I was surprised, but that’s how it happened.”
“It’s clearly a new situation, it’s something we didn’t anticipate at this point in the season and it’s a new dynamic and it’s clearly something we need to work on.”
“But that said, we have been together, we have spent time at the factory and at various events and everything is going well on a human and professional level, we have a full season to do.”
“We want to have the most competitive car with both drivers having the opportunity to achieve the best possible results and it would be great to finish on a high with Lewis this year, we have had a wonderful time and there are still 10 months to go. pass and we keep it all.”
Vasseur played for time
Wolff revealed he started to feel like something was up when Vasseur didn’t respond to a message until the announcement came. Asked whether Vasseur had done a good job during their phone call, he was amused and perfectly understands his counterpart’s position.
“No, he didn’t do a good job! We’ve been friends for a long time and in the same way we know we’re competitors on the slopes. So it’s a balancing act that’s not not always easy, because we have the duty and the obligation to give the best of ourselves in the interest of our team.”
“And that’s what Fred did in this situation. I understand the reasoning. Obviously it’s not always easy in such a good relationship to know how to deal with that, but it has no or no effect repercussions on the relationship I will have with Fred.”
“When I sent Fred a WhatsApp message two days before, he didn’t respond, so I guess I knew. But then, no, Fred didn’t tell me anything, Lewis wanted to tell me first .”
No worries for the 2024 season
Max Verstappen suggested both teams were forced to make a premature announcement and predicted the situation might be difficult for Hamilton and Mercedes to deal with with 24 races remaining in this situation.
While Wolff admits that the Dutchman was perhaps right at the start, he believes that the matter is now settled and that all of Mercedes’ attention is focused on the upcoming campaign: “The morale in the team and the dynamic that We have this year been over winter, it’s great.”
“We spend a lot of time trying to introspect and ask ourselves what we can do better. And what we see is an organization that is really buzzing and eager to fight and to develop a faster car while remaining true to our mindset and our values. And that’s something we want to achieve this year.
“At the beginning it was maybe difficult to know how we were going to proceed for the rest of the season. But now everything has come together and you know it’s just a focus of the moment and the next race is coming.”
Mercedes is not going to rush to announce the second driver for 2025: “There are a lot of excellent drivers who are already on the grid and available, so it won’t be something we decide soon. It will be around the month of May, following the first races.”
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>F1 tests in Sakhir, D2: Sainz concludes in the lead, Ferrari is the most diligent >Albon: Williams F1 has corrected its faults… while creating new problems >Leclerc: ‘No bad surprises’ on the Ferrari SF-24 > Vasseur’s silence made Wolff understand that Hamilton was leaving >Russell: The new Mercedes F1 allows you to attack and is no longer a diva + info Formula 1
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