Team important Toto Wolff has mentioned Mercedes are “100% committed” to maintaining Lewis Hamilton and expects to peer the previous international champion chasing a report 8th Formula One name subsequent 12 months, regardless of stories the British motive force may just stroll clear of the game.
There has additionally been hypothesis within the paddock linking Mercedes with a transfer for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, however the Monégasque motive force has mentioned he was once “fully committed” to the Italian group.
Wolff mentioned of Leclerc: “I feel he is 100% dedicated and dependable to Ferrari and it is his contract, and in the similar manner we’re 100% dedicated to striking pen to paper with Lewis. I feel no one doubts Charles’ skill and he is a just right man.
“The best time I talked to him was once to invite the place the gate is in Melbourne to board the aircraft. No touch in a different way,” Wolff added on formula1.com. “Charles is a super guy, and for the long-term future someone you need to always have on your radar and that’s clear. But not for the short- or the medium-term.
Hamilton will be 39 next January and has not won a race since the December 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when he took a record 103rd victory, with his team playing catch-up to now-dominant Red Bull. Hamilton is out of contract at the end of the season and there have been suggestions in the media about his future, despite both the Briton and his team saying they want to agree a new deal.
“I feel he feels very a lot that he is sturdy and we really feel the similar, that we don’t seem to be going to race for a drivers’ championship this 12 months,” said Wolff. “That is what it looks like at the moment, and we just need to give him a car that can do that. Hopefully we can get our package to a winning package this season and have something that can bring him his eighth title, and no doubt he is motivated to achieve this.”
Hamilton is fourth within the championship, 45 issues at the back of Red Bull’s double international champion, Max Verstappen, after 4 of 23 races and with Miami subsequent up this weekend. He was once 2nd in Australia remaining month. Red Bull have gained each race thus far, 3 of them with one-two finishes.