Toto Wolff reveals Fernando Alonso phone call after Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari decision
Share:
Fernando Alonso was among those who called after learning that Lewis Hamilton was planning to leave Mercedes. That is the revelation from Toto Wolff as he recalled the weeks leading up to Hamilton's announcement that he planned to join Ferrari. His impending move was announced on February 1, 2024, a couple of days after he told team principal Wolff over breakfast at the Austrian's home.
As it turned out, Wolff already had an inkling that his seven-time Formula 1 champion driver had decided to leave. To make room for Hamilton in their driver line-up, Ferrari had to inform Carlos Sainz that his contract was not going to be renewed. And the Spaniard's father, Carlos Snr, was the one who tipped Wolff off about what was going on behind the scenes. Recalling the day Hamilton came to tell him his plans, the Mercedes chief told The Guardian: "I wasn't shocked at all.
"I knew this was happening a few weeks earlier when I got a phone call from Carlos Sainz and his father. He said, 'Something is cooking'. I said, 'Why would that happen before the start of the season?'. "But that same afternoon I received calls from a few other drivers that were close to Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso too. I think it started from Leclerc knowing over the winter and then his closest allies hearing there was a seat free. I said to [his wife] Susie, 'This is happening without us officially knowing'.".
In an attempt to find out more, Wolff sent a text message to his friend, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, asking directly if he had hired Hamilton. The message went unanswered, which was unusual and only served to make Wolff more sure than he already was that his driver was leaving.
