Lewis Hamilton was bid farewell by Mercedes after the Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi with warm words towards Ferrari, where he will drive from 2025. Silver Arrows team boss Toto Wolff even announced that he would support the seven-time champion on his way to the sole World Cup record if Mercedes cannot keep up next year. But according to ex-Haas team boss Günther Steiner, that was just an empty phrase.
When Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of December, he could no longer contain himself. Tears welled up in the Brit’s eyes; an era had just come to an end. Hamilton was active for Mercedes for twelve years and won six of his seven titles in the Silver Arrow. He will now continue at Ferrari in 2025.
“We love you! You will always remain part of the Mercedes family. If we don’t win, you should do it,” said team boss Toto Wolff to Hamilton on the radio and later repeated his words in a similar form in a media round.
“We will be competitors, but I told him that if we can’t win, we will cheer him on,” Wolff revealed to journalists.
The reason for the unusual approach: Hamilton “deserved an eighth championship”. With this he would overtake Michael Schumacher, who like Hamilton has won seven world titles, and become the sole champion.
Steiner: Wolff’s words were just for show
But it is also clear that his “team, the drivers, his own brand, of course the most important things” are, first and foremost, Mercedes will try to win. “And we will give it our all,” promised Wolff. If that doesn’t work, the Austrian’s fingers are crossed for Hamilton.
Or not? Günther Steiner believes that it was all just a show on Wolff’s part. “Oh no, he doesn’t wish that for him…” said Steiner in the “Red Flags Podcast” when asked about the Mercedes boss’s unusual words.
“That was just bullshit for the camera, that was just for the camera,” emphasized Steiner, who worked as a TV expert in 2024 after losing his job as team boss at Haas at the beginning of the year. How much sincerity there is in Wolff’s words will only be shown in the new season.