Wolff: ‘I didn’t convince Hamilton to stay because everyone has a ‘shelf life”
Toto Wolff has explained why he is not trying to persuade Lewis Hamilton to stay at Mercedes rather than switch to Ferrari.In February, Hamilton announced that he would leave Mercedes at the end of the year and join Ferrari as of the 2025 season.
Wolff says Hamilton’s decision to move to another team is actually a positive one because it does not require an uncomfortable conversation with the seven-time world champion where he tells him he is “no longer needed”.
Wolff points to former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s example of this, which is the way they have shed older players while rebuilding their squads with young talent.
“I expected Lewis to leave the team,” Wolff said in his book ‘Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane’. “But I couldn’t understand why he would move to another team without knowing if we could be competitive.”
“I like it though. It helps us as a team because one day we won’t have to say we don’t want the most iconic driver in the sport on the team anymore.”
“There was a reason we only signed him for one-plus-one years.”
“We’re in a sport where cognitive acuity is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life.”
“That’s why I have to look at the next generation. It’s the same in football. For example, with a manager like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola, they bring in young players who can foresee things and guide the team for the coming years,” he said.
Wolff also admitted that Hamilton is still thinking about the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he lost the title to Max Verstappen.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast about the book, Wolff said: “Every week I think about the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. But the main thing I think about is that Lewis deserved to be the greatest of all time with eight world titles.”
“You can argue anything about that year. I think both Max and Lewis deserved the title.”
“There were times throughout the year when Max lost points that he shouldn’t have, like Silverstone. Or when they touched in Monza. So they both deserved to be champions. But what happened in Abu Dhabi was not fair.
