“Lewis needs to decide what his future holds”- Toto Wolff on Lewis Hamilton’s commitment with Mercedes post 2021

“Lewis needs to decide what his future holds”- Toto Wolff on Lewis Hamilton’s commitment with the Brackley based team after 2021.

Mercedes official statement on Monday confirmed that the Briton would be remaining with Mercedes for next season, ending the last piece of the grid 2021 lineup puzzle.

However, the one-year contract extension has aroused the questions of Hamilton’s commitment in 2022, and Toto Wolff diverted this to Hamilton, as he says that Hamilton has to decide that.

“As long as he enjoys racing, I think he’s very capable of going longer,” said Wolff. “He develops as a driver he looks after himself in terms of physical training and mental preparation, so I don’t think in terms of ability that ends in 2021. But in the end, it’s his decision.

“Lewis needs to decide what his future holds for him. The team needs to decide in the long term what we want to do about drivers.”

Toto Wolff will solve 2022 uncertainty.

With both drivers running on a one-year-long deal, it means that Mercedes will have to repeat the whole procedure once again. On the other hand, even George Russell would be out of contract in 2022.

Thus, Mercedes might see it as the right time to finally give him his right break. Though, Wolff as of now has claimed that he would be sitting with Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton for 2022 clarification.

“Valtteri and Lewis have our 100 per cent commitment and loyalty for 2021, we will support them with everything we have,” explained the Mercedes boss.

“We will then look beyond this year and say: ‘what is the line-up that we imagine in 2022 and onwards?’ Our first discussions will be with Valtteri and Lewis in respecting our values of loyalty and integrity, but on the other side, the young drivers are the future. Therefore we need to consider how we want to set ourselves up for the years beyond.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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