07 March 2023 , 13:05
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Toto Wolff insists Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will be "sticking together" despite another disappointing season looming for the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton's current contract expires at the end of this season. Both the seven-time world champion and Wolff had publicly stated towards the end of last year that an extension was inevitable, but talks over the winter did not lead to a resolution as expected.
Now, contract talks are on hold in the wake of a poor performance in Bahrain. Mercedes will have hoped for signs of recovery after a largely dismal 2022 campaign, but the first race of the new season produced a familiar story.
It remains to be seen whether pen will be put to paper on a new deal. It has been suggested that it might depend on whether the team can provide Hamilton with a competitive car but, when questioned about possible alternatives, Wolff said he is not even close to thinking about potentially having to replace the seven-time champion.
"I think there is no point talking about the driver situation in 2024. That is far too early," he said. "We need to all push in the same directions, the drivers, the engineers, all of us management. Rather than throwing in the towel. We're not doing that. We never have done that and we will not be doing that.
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"The Lewis situation, you heard him on the radio. I think he's an integral part of the team, picking the team up and we're all sticking together and I don't think that's going to change just because we had another start that was really bad. We won eight constructors' championships and we won six drivers' championships with him. That relationship holds.
Toto Wolff says he is not thinking about potentially having to replace Hamilton (AFP via Getty Images)"I think it would be much too easy to lose a driver and then just throw in the white towel. We're not doing that. On the contrary, we just need to really dig deep and deeper than we've ever done, and provide both drivers with a car that they're actually able to fight with. You almost feel for them."
Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain, one place higher than he would have had Charles Leclerc not suffered an engine failure. He said: "We were miles away. There was a Ferrari that would have been ahead of [Alonso], so we would have really been sixth, so a podium was nowhere near. It generally felt the same as last year.
"When we did the strategy in the morning, I told the guys it wasn't going to go as far as they said it was going to go – and it didn't. We have just got a lot of work to do. We have just got to add downforce to the car – we're lacking a lot of downforce. That is really where the time will come from. As soon as we put more load on the rear and the front, we'll pick up the pace."