“We are in happy place with Lewis but…,” Toto Wolff provides update on Lewis Hamilton’s contract extension
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Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton‘s Formula 1 career has been under heavy scrutiny of the public eye for quite some time now. As the 7-time World Champion failed to clinch his eighth F1 title in 2021 because his missed out by a sliver of his skin as Max Verstappen beat him in the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi, there were many opinions going around in the motorsports communities that said that Hamilton has lost his mojo after spending almost 15 years in F1 and now he needs to retire and make way for the younger racers in the Mercedes team.
Paying no heed to what the onlookers said about him, Lewis Hamilton signed a contract extension to stay with his Stuttgart-based team till 2023. And now that Lewis is, in many people’s opinions, in the final years of his career, he has failed to turn the table on his opponents and go up to the highest spot on the Championship table where he had reigned for a major part of his career. While Lewis had vowed to aim for the Championship after losing out on it last year, he is nowhere near his goal and is currently sixth in the standings.
So, there have been speculations of whether Mercedes is planning to drop him post 2023, but their Boss Toto Wolff has now said they think it is still too early to talk about the 2024 season of F1 now.
Toto Wolff discloses nothing as he gets a question on whether Lewis Hamilton would stay with Mercedes beyond 2023
Mercedes entered into the F1 2022 season with big promises where Lewis Hamilton vowed to clinch the World Championship title once more and their newbie recruit George Russell would get some precious Championship points for the team. While Russell has delivered on his promise by staying consistently in the top 5 through the nine races that have happened till now, Lewis has fallen behind his young teammate and does not seem to be recovering enough.
While speaking on the question of whether Mercedes will keep Lewis Hamilton for the F1 seasons beyond 2023, Toto Wolff said, “We are in a happy place with Lewis, and there is no doubt that we are embarking on the season and the next one in a good place. But it’s too early to discuss 2024. Having said that, I couldn’t wish for a better driver pairing.”
Wolff also commented, “I can say that within the team, [Lewis Hamilton] was always very positive in his mindset. How the two work together [Hamilton and Russell] is really astonishing; in the briefings, they keep asking each other questions. I guess it’s going to be different if you race at the very front.”
Read More: Sebastian Vettel to not appear on F1 TV shows: “I’m not going to be a TV pundit.”
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)