Toto Wolff has given his tackle Lewis Hamilton’s current self-criticism, arguing that the Briton stays “the best of all time” and will keep within the sport “for a lot of extra years”.
Hamilton made headlines over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend when he reacted to a shock Q2 exit by describing himself as “completely ineffective” and suggesting Ferrari “in all probability want to alter driver”.
After beginning and ending twelfth within the race, Hamilton added that he was “trying ahead to going away” for the summer time break, with “so much occurring within the background that isn’t nice”.
Requested for his response to Hamilton’s feedback following final weekend’s motion on the Hungaroring, Mercedes boss Wolff mentioned: “That’s Lewis carrying his coronary heart on his sleeve.
“It’s what he thought very a lot when he was requested after the session. It was very uncooked. He was doubting himself.
“We had it up to now when he felt that he underperformed his personal expectations. He’s been that emotionally clear since he was a younger boy or a younger grownup. So, he’s going to beat himself up.
“He’s the GOAT and he’ll at all times be the GOAT, and no person goes to take that away. For certain, no single weekend or race season that hasn’t gone to plan. That’s one thing he must at all times bear in mind – he’s the best of all time.”
Wolff and Hamilton labored collectively at Mercedes from 2013 to 2024, a interval that yielded six of the 40-year-old’s seven world titles – the opposite achieved with McLaren again in 2008.
Hamilton got here near including an eighth crown in a fiercely contested 2021 season, which noticed Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen triumph in dramatic circumstances on the Abu Dhabi finale.
“Lewis has unfinished enterprise in F1,” Wolff continued, as he contemplated Hamilton’s future.
“In the identical means that Mercedes underperformed over this newest set of rules since 2022 and type of by no means obtained proud of floor impact automobiles… in the identical means it beats him.
“Possibly it’s linked to driving type. He shouldn’t go wherever subsequent yr. Model new automobiles, utterly completely different to drive, new energy items that want an clever means of managing the vitality.
“That’s completely on for Lewis and I hope he stays on for a lot of extra years. Actually, subsequent yr goes to be an vital one.”
Pressed on whether or not he believes Hamilton can nonetheless win an eighth title, Wolff commented: “I feel if he has a automobile beneath him that he has confidence in, that does what he needs, then sure.
“If he has a automobile that’s not giving him the suggestions that he needs, and that was the Mercedes of the previous few years, and that appears to be the Ferrari and even worse, then not.
“However you ask me whether or not he has it… he undoubtedly has it.”
