Wolff: Lewis still has many years in F1 yet ahead of him
Lewis Hamilton will be in Formula One for many more years, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has claimed, despite the Briton’s dissatisfactory start to the new season.
Hamilton’s chance of winning an eighth world championship this year is hanging by the slightest of threads after just two rounds.
The 37-year-old’s Mercedes team have been left trailing by rivals Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton is already 29 points behind championship leader Charles Leclerc, and was fifth on the grid for this morning’s Australian Grand Prix after he qualified one second back from the Monegasque.
Hamilton’s remit is to win, and although he is only starting the first of a new two-year deal which is expected to earn him £80million, he will not be content with just making up the numbers.
So, could his underperforming Mercedes machinery send him to an early retirement? “No,” said Wolff. “You can only walk away if you don’t like what you do any more, but Lewis loves doing this.
“Fernando Alonso, at 40, wants to go on for another three years. Today, athletes look after themselves much better.
“More is known about the science, nutrition, health and medical side of it, and Lewis is in fantastic shape. His lifestyle is hugely disciplined now and he has many, many years to go.
“In Britain, a couple means two, but where I come from in Austria, a couple means a few, and there are a few more years to go.
“And isn’t it a great challenge for him? He was at Mclaren. He then went to Mercedes when it wasn’t great, and has won six titles here. The team has got it wrong now, but he can be a part of the rise again.”
Mercedes have dominated the sport since 2014 – enabling Hamilton to become the grid’s most decorated star. But the Silver Arrows, winners of the past eight constructors’ titles, have failed to get on top of the new regulations.
Wolff added: “I don’t sleep, and that is not because of jet lag. I am not sleeping because I am beating myself up on how to get on top of these things.
“It is the same for Lewis. I see an upbeat Lewis when we start the day, and then a downbeat Lewis when the session has gone worse than expected.
“I have had to stop thinking in terms of sessions and weekends, but about years and there will be years like this one where we have really bad weekends, but these weekends are necessary to learn.”