Hamilton "ties the horse" at Ferrari
That morning,breakfast was already prepared. Lewis Hamilton, as usual at the endof January, went to a meeting with the team principal ofMercedes-Benz, Toto Wolff.
Before thestart of the season, they would discuss goals for the coming year.Many things were the same, but one was different. And it made acomplete splash in the Formula 1 world, both: media wise and andfinancially, too.
The Brit toldhis boss that he was leaving the team at the end of the year andmoving to the famous Ferrari. The events that followed, though theyfundamentally changed things in the fastest theater in the world,only added even more shine to the entire package.
Hamilton is aseven-time world champion, six of which he won in collaboration withthe Austrian who, without any shame, can be measured in knowledge andaudacity with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Ingvar Kamprad.
"He toldme that morning that he was terminating our contract a year beforethe deadline. We are grown men. There is no reason for anger. He waslooking for a new challenge. I have no negative feelings towards FredVasseur (head of Ferrari racing) because he wants the best and wasjust doing his job," Toto Wolff gracefully commented on theevent.
Wolff, whosestake in the Mercedes F1 team is now estimated at 1.2 billion euros,can be very grateful to Hamilton for that.
"We'vedone some phenomenal things together," says Wolff.
In 2013, hebought 30% of the team's shares for $30 million. Of course, as partof the contract which positioned him as team boss. Ten years later,with Lewis Hamilton, it's now worth over a billion.
As soon as thenews was announced, along with the addition that the company's annualbalance sheet was great, Ferrari's shares jumped by 12% and reached arecord value, increasing the market value by another $10 billion.
Within 24 hoursof the news being released, Ferrari gained 232,000 new followers onInstagram.
And Hamiltonwill become their member in a year. What a show.
And yes,Hamilton wrote on Instagram that he is grateful, that this was thetoughest decision in his life, and so on. Graceful from all sides.But sometimes it all seems a bit artificial. Yet, F1 will onlybenefit from this. It hasn't even happened yet, and everything ismore interesting, well...for some even money wise better, buzz isgreat. Brilliant.
