Toto Wolff assures that Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will remain in touch, even with the Briton's departure to Ferrari. The Mercedes F1 director wants to keep in touch on a personal level with his former driver, and does not exclude that they could work together again one day.
“There is no question of ending the relationship that Mercedes has with Lewis, nor the one we have as a team, nor the one that Susie and I have as individuals. Quite the contrary.” Wolff said.
“I think Lewis has decided to do something else for the end of his career, which I understand, or what I can understand, but he will always be part of this family and will always be welcome. And one day, maybe -maybe when he stops flying, there will be plenty of adventures for us to embark on.”
The Austrian praised his compatriot Niki Lauda for having convinced Hamilton to sign up with Mercedes at the end of 2012, notably thanks to a well-timed meeting, after a victory lost by the Briton.
“Without Niki, there would be no Lewis at Mercedes. I think Niki was so persistent in his efforts to convince him to join Mercedes and, in particular, he scored the goal with him that Sunday night in Singapore, when Lewis had a failure with the McLaren and convinced him to join the team.”
“Everything else followed. I'm not sure Niki was ever given enough credit for that. He took no prisoners – what's the salary you want? – and convinced the board of Mercedes to do so.”
“Niki was always a very good intermediary between the team and Lewis in the first years, because he spoke as a three-time world champion and had the respect of Lewis. Eventually we all found each other the three of them and the whole team became one entity.”
“We sometimes call drivers entrepreneurs: they come, you pay them well, if they no longer have the right car and they are paid well elsewhere, they leave. Lewis went from being an entrepreneur to being a member of the team, and this because everyone adopted the notion of team that we had at the time.”
Eddie Jordan was the one who revealed Hamilton's transfer, and he reveals why he knew it: “Niki Lauda was pushing me to McLaren to go and talk to Lewis, to do all the little messages for him, because he couldn't do it because of his links with Mercedes. He was so involved in Mercedes that I had to do it for him.”
