{"id":393071,"date":"2025-09-02T23:07:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/393071\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T23:07:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:07:36","slug":"lewis-hamiltons-ferrari-move-prevented-toughest-call-of-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/393071\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari move prevented toughest call of my career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> shocked the Formula 1 paddock with his move from Mercedes<\/a> to Ferrari<\/a> for the 2025 season. But while the change in teams hasn\u2019t heralded the change in fortunes he may have hoped for, it did mean that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff avoided making a call he \u201cdreaded\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s first season with Ferrari hasn\u2019t resulted in the change in fortunes<\/a> the seven-time champion had hoped for. And instead, has been marked by continued struggles and even claims that he should step down from the side. \u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Hamilton\u2019s former boss at Mercedes is reluctant to suggest that the seven-time world champion no longer has \u201cit\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You don’t lose your capability from one day to the other,\u201d the Mercedes boss said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA driver or a sportsperson can compensate a decline of performance in some areas with overperformance in others. Let’s say, your experience can compensate for maybe a lesser speed on a single lap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve seen Alonso, he’s always been able to compensate. So, I believe Lewis with a car that gives him the confidence and the feedback can still be very good.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Toto <\/p>\n

Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG George Russell, Mercedes-AMG Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG<\/p>\n

Photo by: Steve Etherington \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s lack in confidence has become an all too familiar sight in recent years, after he struggled to adapt to F1\u2019s ground effect era at Mercedes<\/a> and is now facing more issues following his switch to Ferrari. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“He’s had those emotions with us as well,\u201d Wolff added. \u201cI think he had bad moments as well, you know, where he felt the strategy went against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start to understand an individual better, how they function, and then with him you know – I know him so well, I know how that goes and sometimes I just needed to put my arm around him immediately or give him half an hour to let the steam off and then things would normalise in a way.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Struggling in a new environment\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this regard, Wolff believes that it helped Hamilton that he faced his initial struggles with F1\u2019s new era<\/a> in the Mercedes environment, which felt very familiar to Hamilton. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re in your family you can shout and scream and everybody’s going to know why. When you’re in a new environment, you don’t know the others as well, but you still want to shout and scream. So, the dynamic is just unknown – not that it’s better or worse, it’s just unknown and that certainly makes things less easy.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the struggles that Hamilton faced since making the switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, Wolff says he still understands the Brit\u2019s move to the Scuderia. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andrea Diodato \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the reasons he had to go to Ferrari are still valid today,\u201d Wolff added. \u201cHe needed a change of environment, and we needed a change of environment. We weren’t as competitive as we would have wished. Ferrari looked better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery racing driver wants to race in Ferrari. He likes the colour red anyway. The deal that was on the table was very good,\u201d Wolff added, in reference to the financial aspect of Hamilton\u2019s move to the Scuderia.<\/p>\n

“These reasons are still valid today. Now, he’s going against one of the best drivers also, of the younger ones, who’s been in the team for a long time, with a car that drives totally different than ours,\u201d Wolff said, in reference to Hamilton\u2019s struggles to match the pace of team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a> both in qualifying and race trim so far this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s current lack in form compared to a much younger driver offers a glimpse into the decisions Mercedes was making behind the scenes where, up until Hamilton\u2019s announcement, Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> was waiting patiently for a seat. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were prepared to take a risk,\u201d Wolff said. \u201cBut you can’t say to a Lewis Hamilton, \u2018we’re finishing this\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he did it. And that’s how it was meant to be. And that’s the trajectory we’re on today.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

When pushed further on the call Wolff would have one day had to make with regards to Hamilton\u2019s future at Mercedes, Wolff added: \u201cVery difficult. That would have been a scenario that, for me, from a personal perspective and as Mercedes, would have been something that we would have dreaded to have this conversation.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Photos from Dutch GP – Race<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton shocked the Formula 1 paddock with his move from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[125824,4199,132802,997,707,4200,998,4859,79,14319,136039,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-393071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-dutch-gp","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-f1-dutch-grand-prix-2025","11":"tag-ferrari","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-lewis-hamilton","15":"tag-mercedes","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-toto-wolff","18":"tag-toto-wolff-lewis-hamiltonu2019s-ferrari-move-prevented-toughest-call-of-my-career","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115137221556165269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}