Lewis Hamilton put pen to paper on a new two-year contract with Mercedes in August that will keep him with the Brackley-based team until the end of the 2025 season. By the time his deal is up, he will have been with the Silver Arrows for 13 years while he will also race into his forties.
Yet team principal Toto Wolff believes there is still plenty more gas left in the Brit’s tank. “He is 39 in January, and Fernando (Alonso – 42) is still going strong,” Wolff told the Independent when asked whether he thinks Hamilton will continue racing past the 2025 season.
“As long as you look after yourself, you do the best preparation, physically and mentally, and develop different areas to when you are 25, then yes.
“We just need to give him a car that is quick enough. And, as a driver, I have no doubt about him. You have seen in the last races that his performance, speed and race craft are all there. But, if he doesn’t have the car underneath him, he cannot win.”
Whether that will be with Mercedes is hard to call at this point. “We are living from contract to contract, and it is important that we are doing what we think is right and what we feel is right, and at the moment I personally feel he can go longer,” Wolff added.
Since Hamilton first joined Mercedes in 2012 the F1 climate has changed drastically. The Silver Arrows were the dominant force throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, winning eight constructor championships straight from 2014 to 2021 but the last two years have seen the momentum shift towards Red Bull.
Red Bull and star driver Max Verstappen have both set records for the most amount of points accumulated in a single season this year. However, that hasn’t dissuaded Wolff. The Austrian insists that he is driven by “personal anger” to get Mercedes and Hamilton back on top.
“You can see how quickly the pecking order changes. We won eight constructors’ championships in a row, and it has been two years since Red Bull have been taking the trophy home. But we have to look forward, learn from the past, and the push now is to make Lewis win quickly again.
“I have a personal anger, and drive to make him win the eighth title because he should have had it. As a team principal, it is important to be fair and open with both drivers. But there is a big part of us that will always want to be a part of that story in undoing and overcoming 2021.”
