Toto Wolff's emotional final words to Lewis Hamilton before end of Mercedes F1 career
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Toto Wolff said an emotional farewell to Lewis Hamilton as the Brit formally completed his final duties as a Mercedes driver. Hamilton is headed to rivals Ferrari in the New Year having announced his planned switch in February. The entire 2024 season was something of a long farewell tour for the seven-time Formula 1 champion after a dozen campaigns with the Silver Arrows.
For the final few weeks of his Mercedes contract, Hamilton has been on tour. First, he headed to Kuala Lumpur to visit staff at the team's long-time partners Petronas, before travelling to Stuttgart to meet with executives at Mercedes' parent company.
And then it was back to the UK to spend time with staff at the team's Brackley and Brixworth bases. It was there that team principal Wolff took the chance to say his own personal goodbye. In a clip of the speech released by the team on social media, the Austrian is visibly emotional as he speaks of his pride of having worked with Hamilton for so long, and also spoke on behalf of F1 legend Niki Lauda who was heavily involved in the running of the team until his death in 2019.
Wolff said: "The name Lewis Hamilton will stand for a long time as the greatest. I will be telling my grandchildren to be proud because I was a part of Lewis Hamilton's journey. And that is something we can all be very proud of, for however many years you've been here, whether it was one month or 12 years like I have been.
