Wolff says Hamilton will look at Mercedes rear wing in 2025

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has revealed that he told Lewis Hamilton he’ll have to “picture our rear wing” once he makes his Formula 1 switch to Ferrari in 2025.

Wolff has admitted how leaks to the media meant the relevant parties had little choice but to make an immediate announcement regarding Hamilton’s unexpected decision.

“I think it was difficult for him to really tell me because he left for the Christmas holiday and was Mercedes forever,” Wolff told Fox News Australia at the Australian Grand Prix.

“Normally that’s a time where we don’t speak a lot because he’s gone, because otherwise we’re speaking every day. And then he came back and said, can we have a coffee? He came for the coffee, that’s the normal thing we’re doing when the season kicks off, and he said, ‘I’m leaving to Ferrari’. And I said, ‘really?’

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“And not that it shocked me, because we knew that we have a short-term contract, but the timing at the beginning of the season.

“I said, ‘why at the beginning of the season?’ He said he just wanted to have it out and not have it as a burden, emotional burden. “And then you got to stay pragmatic after five minutes [of] shock and disbelief it was like, ‘okay what are we doing announcement, what are we doing going forward into the season?’

“And he said, ‘well the announcement is a tricky thing because I think it’s leaking’, so it didn’t give me lots of options.” Wolff said he still can’t envisage Hamilton wearing Ferrari’s red overalls and remarked that he told the seven-time champion he would end up behind Mercedes cars.

“I think first I can’t imagine him in red,” he added. I don’t think it suits him, but I think that picture is going to be interesting And then I told him, you’ve got to really picture our rear wing because that’s the perspective you’re going to have.”