Lewis Hamilton wants and is able to keep his Mercedes seat for five more years, according to team boss Toto Wolff.
After the seven-time world champion’s highly controversial title loss in 2021, as well as his struggle with Mercedes’ car in 2022, some have wondered if Hamilton, 37, is now rushing into retirement.
The British driver is under contract until the end of the 2023 season and Wolff says contract negotiations for 2024 have already started.
“Last week we sat down and he said, ‘Look, I’ve still got five years ahead of me – how do you see that? We are completely transparent with each other,” Wolff said.
Wolff’s response to Hamilton was that he thinks he is more than capable of emulating Fernando Alonso and racing well beyond his 40th birthday.
“Now is he the same Fernando he was at 25? I don’t know but he’s still very competitive,” Wolff said. “So Lewis, with the way he lives his life, with complete and ultra-tight focus on his Formula 1 racing, I think he can go quite far,” he told European media Channel 4 in an interview posted on YouTube.
At the same time, Wolff believes Hamilton will be able to recognize when he’s falling short.
“Lewis will be the first to say ‘I can’t do this anymore because I feel like I’ve run out of reactions. Or ‘I just lost the fun of doing it and there’s another generation growing up that’s just very strong.’
“So I have no doubt that whatever we agree to a contract extension – which is going to happen – the two of us will always discuss, very openly, what the future holds for us.”
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