Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is getting used to the sight of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari but he’s keen for his team to beat its newfound Formula 1 rival.
After 12 seasons, Wolff and Hamilton parted ways at the end of 2024 with the seven-time champion heading to Maranello to race for the famed Ferrari team.
It was an idea that Wolff has expressed finding difficult to get to grips with and anyone who has watched the most-recent series of Drive to Survive on Netflix will know Wolff couldn’t imagine Hamilton in red.
However, since January, Hamilton in red has been beamed into the global consciousness as the media has tracked the Briton’s every move with his new team.
As a result, Wolff has grown accustomed to the move, but he has firmly placed a target on his former charge.
“At first it was a strange thought how he would look after so many days in the Mercedes,” Wolff told OE24.
“But then he rode up in his red outfit and in the red car. In these fast-moving times, you quickly get used to it. Now it’s a normal image for me.”
Wolff gave his verdict on the iconic photo of Hamilton in a suit and tie in front of Ferrari headquarters in January, which became the most-liked F1-related image on Instagram of all-time.
“There was something iconic about him standing there in his Godfather outfit in a suit,” he said.
“I said to him: ‘I’ve been trying to get you into a suit for 12 years, and then you do it on your first day at Ferrari.’ We both laughed a lot.
“It’s not that bad,” Wolff said of the Hamilton split.
“We are very good friends. On a personal level, I wish him all the best, but on the racetrack we want to beat him.”
Why Mercedes trusts Antonelli as Hamilton’s replacement
Of course, with Hamilton departing Mercedes a seat had to be filled at the Brackley-based outfit.
That seat has gone to 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli who Wolff has known since the Italian came onto the Mercedes radar at the age of 12.
Wolff admitted that once Hamilton announced his departure, it was time to trust Antonelli moving forward and the example Oliver Bearman set with Ferrari last year in Saudi Arabia emboldened that faith.
“Kimi was always in the pipeline, and we knew if Lewis were to stop one day, we would be going the Kimi way and trusting him,” Wolff said.
“But when everybody saw the level of performance of Bearman in the Ferrari in Saudi Arabia, with basically missing out on the Friday, and then being exceptional, you kind of, I think many teams were saying, ‘oh, hold on a minute, where’s Bearman in F2, where’s he in F3, what has he done before,’ and the realisation came maybe the level of these young drivers is very high, actually.”
Antonelli has been fast-tracked to F1 in light of Hamilton’s departure as just two years ago, the Italian was racing in Formula Regional.
However, his title success in 2023 convinced Mercedes to propel Antonelli beyond FIA Formula 3 and into Formula 2 last year, and he became a race winner in his rookie season.
To prepare him sufficiently to help Wolff on his quest to beat Hamilton and Ferrari, Antonelli underwent a programme of approximately 9000 kilometres in old Mercedes F1 cars before pre-season testing.
READ MORE – Toto Wolff: Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari like ‘seeing your divorced partner with a new friend’
