Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has ramped up the pressure on his team by insisting that it must deliver a title-contending car that can bring Lewis Hamilton “alive”.
Hamilton is currently tied with Michael Schumacher on seven F1 Drivers’ titles, having capitalised on Mercedes’ domination of the turbo-hybrid engine era from 2014 to add to his 2008 success with McLaren.
The Briton was set for a record-breaking eighth championship in 2021 but was denied when ex-FIA race director Michael Masi contravened the FIA Safety Car restart rules.
Amid Mercedes’ ongoing struggles since the regulations overhaul last season, Hamilton has not been able to reignite his intense rivalry with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Brackley-based squad has only amassed one victory during F1’s return to ground effect machinery via George Russell, leaving Hamilton winless since December 2021.
However, Wolff underlines that he’s certain Hamilton, who re-signed with Mercedes through 2025, can battle for the title again with the right machinery underneath him.
“From Lewis’ perspective he had a bad weekend,” Wolff reflected in Abu Dhabi after Hamilton exited in the second stage of qualifying and then trailed home ninth.
“That doesn’t do anything on him being the greatest driver in the world, and if we are able to give him a car, he will be fighting for a World Championship. I have no doubt.
“It’s clear when you have a Formula One car like we have now, you are never at ease with it and you have good weekends and bad weekends.
“But whenever we have seen that Lewis has someone in his target in front of him and it was about winning the race, then the real Lewis comes alive. We just need to give that to him.”
Mercedes’ absence at the top has enabled Red Bull to assume responsibility as the dominant entity in F1, with the Austrian outfit winning all but one of the 22 races in 2023.
The German marque is set to press ahead with a revised car philosophy for 2024 as it bids to return to championship contention against Red Bull and Verstappen next year.
“Somebody told me a funny sentence about a long-term perspective: we have a board in our factory that shows all the Constructors’ World Championships since 1958 and the table goes until 2050 and we have the logos and badges of the different years,” Wolff added.
“There is 27 open with empty badges, and I would like to look back in 20 years and say there are many more Mercedes stars.
“When you are retrospective, and I hate retrospective views, but when you look back 20 years and consider that decade it was second, first, first, first, first, first, first, first, first, third, second. When you look at it from that perspective, you kind of say that was OK.
“Now, from a micro view there is one guy [Verstappen] who won 19 races [in 2023]. So that is of course not good enough.”
