Toto Wolff, the manager of the Mercedes team, stated that he was caught off guard by Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave the F1 team for Ferrari. Hamilton, who broke the news over breakfast, has had a long and successful career with Mercedes, but has decided to take on a new challenge. Wolff emphasized that there is no ill will towards Hamilton because he values their friendship too much to let it be affected by business decisions.
While Wolff knew that Hamilton may be looking for a new challenge in his career, he wasn’t expecting him to make the move to Ferrari at this time. We will now be actively looking for another driver as a partner for George Russell.
On a positive note, Wolff is not concerned about involving Hamilton with Mercedes’ car development even though he is joining a rival team. He emphasized that he has a lot of faith in Hamilton’s integrity and is confident he won’t compromise any information.
In perhaps related news, the Mercedes team has taken steps to foster diversity within the sport by joining forces with Hamilton to set up the Ignite initiative. Its main goal is to give more opportunities to individuals from different backgrounds who seek to enter career paths within Formula One, science, and engineering.
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