Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton sat down for breakfast in Wolff’s home in Oxford, UK, on Wednesday morning. The meeting had been in the diary for a while, pencilled in as their annual get-together.

Typically, this catch-up acts as their first face-to-face meeting after parting ways to head off for winter break and recharge ahead of the following season. They would then discuss their year ahead.

But as Wolff said on Friday – speaking for the first time since the news broke that Hamilton was leaving after more than a decade to join Ferrari for 2025 – this breakfast turned out to be very different.

“What happened is that we got together for coffee in my place in Oxford, with him returning to the factory [this week], and he said to me that he has decided to race for Ferrari in 2025,” said Wolff. “That was basically it and we had a good hour of conversation and this is where we are.