Toto Wolff admits that Lewis Hamilton was “rolling the dice” when Ferrari’s move caught him off guard.

Toto Wolff has spoken out in a Mercedes press conference the morning after Lewis Hamilton announced he would be leaving to join F1 rivals Ferrari in 2025.

Wolff has admitted that he does not understand why Lewis Hamilton changed his mind on his future in Formula One just months after signing a new contract with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton is “rolling the dice” as Toto Wolff admits being blindsided by Ferrari’s move.Hamilton will leave Mercedes toward the finish of 2024 to join rivals Ferrari. 

After being leaked earlier in the day, that move was officially made on Thursday evening, just 24 hours after the seven-time world champion informed manager Wolff.

The Austrian held a public interview on Friday, during which he made sense of for columnists how his driver had conveyed the news.

” At the point when we marked the agreement with Lewis [last August], we picked the more limited term.

So the occasions are not a shock – perhaps the timing,” he said of the circumstance.On Wednesday, when we met for coffee at my Oxford home, he informed me that he had decided to race for Ferrari in 2025.

That was essentially it. We had a decent hour of discussion and this is where we are.”The announcement’s timing has drawn a lot of attention.

Not only does Hamilton still have a full season remaining at Mercedes before making his move, but he also made the decision to leave the team just five months after promising to stay with the team.

Wolff was asked what might have changed for the Briton to change his mind about his future the way he has, but he was unable to respond.

His reply was, ” I can’t tell you [what has changed]. I can only say that going into the Christmas season, we were very in sync.

Lewis must explain why he changed his mind. How he outlined it to me was completely justifiable, that he wanted another test and that he was searching for an alternate climate and that it was perhaps the last chance to accomplish something different.

We are enormous young men, we realized that by marking a transient agreement it very well may be helpful for the two sides. We were unable to commit to a longer duration.

He has decided to walk away. We absolutely regard that you can adjust your perspective with various conditions and changing to Ferrari, perhaps for the last top in his profession…

I can follow that choice.”He went on, however, to propose his star driver is facing a challenge by leaving the group he refers to his as “family” for another undertaking so late in his vocation. ”

“He may be a little bit playing the dice,” Wolff said, pointing out that there is still a lot of work to be done this year before Hamilton leaves.

He stated: Our principal center is around the 2024 season now.

Lewis, who is wrapping up his time at Mercedes, and George Russell, who is eager to get back in the car and perform, are our two outstanding drivers.

We need to put a car on the track with more speed than the one from last year because we know how hard it will be to compete with Red Bull and other teams.”