LEW WON’T MERC MOVE
Boss blasts Ferrari talk
TOTO WOLFF insists a driver swap involving Lewis Hamilton and his main rival Sebastian Vettel is a non-starter.
Mercedes boss Wolff was quick to dampen down rumours that Hamilton could be heading to Ferrari at the end of the season.
And that having a German driver in a German car as his replacement was an ideal scenario.
Speaking after Hamilton, 32, had blitzed the competition to secure his fifth British Grand Prix win, a clearly irritated Wolff said: “I don’t know who talked about Ferrari and Lewis.
Dreams
“Certainly nobody in the team and not himself. What he said was that he’s a Ferrari fan like we all are and it’s a team every driver dreams to drive in. Full stop.
“He’s in a very good place, he drives the fastest car at the moment and that’s a Mercedes.
“He’s driving great but you need a car that’s capable of doing so as well.
“We have a contract that goes for one-and-a-half more years, so all the talk outside has zero relevance for me.”
Hamilton was more coy about his future, despite acknowledging he is in the form of his life and in with a great chance of lifting a fourth world drivers’ championship.
He said: “In terms of contract and stuff, I can’t say what is going to happen six months from now.
“In life, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Right now, I love driving and I feel I am at my best.
“You could say retirement is very unlikely because I think I am always going to like driving and doing crazy stuff.
“I’m just saying you don’t know what frame of mind I will be in come Christmas time.
“But hopefully it’s a really good one with a fourth world title.”
Hamilton cut Vettel’s lead in the championship to just a single point with victory on Sunday and those who know him best say he is driven by smashing just about every Formula One record.
The best place to achieve those goals at the moment is at Mercedes, who stretched their lead at the top of the constructors’ championship to 55 points with a Hamilton Valtteri Bottas one-two at Silverstone. Hamilton is now just one behind Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions.
And while he still has some way to go to match the German legend’s 91 victories – Sunday’s win was his 57th – if he continues to drive like that, and the Mercedes continues to perform so reliably, that figure will eventually come into view.
Hamilton added: “The team has been re-energised and hopefully we can take that into the next race.”