Toto Wolff reveals Fred Vasseur IGNORED his text over Lewis Hamilton’s shock Ferrari switch
Toto Wolff revealed how Fred Vasseur ignored the former when he questioned Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari in the coming season.
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Fred Vasseur and Lewis Hamilton (via Planetf1), Toto Wolff (via IMAGO)
Lewis Hamilton‘s move to Ferrari was kept under the rugs for as long as possible before the beginning of the 2024 season. However, multiple people had already caught a hint of the move and declared the news to the public. Amongst those people was Toto Wolff who was reportedly tipped of by Carlos Sainz Sr. The Austrian recalled how Fred Vasseur ignored him back then regarding the move.
Toto Wolff recalled the time when the rumors of Lewis Hamilton‘s switch to Ferrari had started flourishing. Not many people were aware of the switch but Carlos Sainz Sr. was one of the few who knew about it. Hence, Sainz Sr. immediately rang Wolff and informed him regarding the switch. Following this, multiple other drivers also approached the Mercedes boss regarding Hamilton’s move.
The old man Sainz called me and said this is what’s happening. Then there were a few drivers that rang me up that didn’t before.
Toto Wolff said on the High Performance Podcast
Immediately after this, Wolff approached Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur regarding the same. The 53-year-old questioned Vasseur if the latter was ‘taking’ Hamilton under his team. However, the Frenchman didn’t respond to the Mercedes boss’s text which the latter found very unusual. The 56-year-old was good friends with Wolff and still decided to not reply to the text.
[I] sent a text to Fred Vasseur saying you’re taking our driver? I didn’t get any response, very unusual for Fred. He’s a good friend.
Toto Wolff added
Toto Wolff evaluates the ‘risk and opportunities’ for Mercedes following Lewis Hamilton’s exit
Lewis Hamilton’s exit from Mercedes put forth some extremely disappointing situation for the team. The reason being that the seven-time world champion was the reason for multiple sponsors investing in the team. Hence, Toto Wolff believed that the departure gave birth to a ‘new situation’ which contained it’s fair share of risks and opportunities.
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?
Toto wolff noted
Mercedes will take massive learnings from this season’s degrading form and aim to improve next year. Wolff has banked massive hopes of the duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli after signing the latter for a year. Regardless, Brackley still has three races pending this season with Hamilton as he will conclude his 12 years of service with the team.
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Aditya Pandya
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