Lewis Hamilton: Would he really quit F1's most successful team?
- Published
Mercedes have won 11 out of 13 races so far this season
Listening to Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, you might be forgiven for thinking the juggernaut that has dominated Formula 1 for the last seven years could be reaching the end of its journey.
Hamilton's victory at Imola, leading team-mate Valtteri Bottas across the line, sealed a record seventh consecutive constructors' championship for Mercedes, surpassing the achievement set by Ferrari between 1999 and 2004.
And yet there was Wolff talking about the stresses of the role, of not wanting to stay beyond his shelf life, and potentially moving into a different position within Mercedes next year. And Hamilton was saying his boss' future was "not a concern for me" because "I don't even know if I'm going to be here next year".
"I feel great and still very strong and feel like I could keep going for plenty of months," Hamilton said. "But you mentioned about Toto and shelf life - these are things that stay on the top of my mind. I would like to be here next year but there is no guarantee. A lot excites me in the after life. Time will tell."
In reality, it is highly unlikely anything will look very different in 2021.
Wolff could well have a new job title - he's talking about being called "executive director" or some such - and he might attend fewer races, with someone else taking on the day-to-day role of running the team. And Hamilton might not yet have a contract for 2021 and beyond.
But the chances of them not being together again for the next two or three years at least are as small as those of Hamilton not tying up his own seventh title this year.
On that front, as long as Hamilton does not lose more than seven points to Bottas at the next race in Turkey, the championship is his. With it, he will equal Michael Schumacher's tally of seven titles. Having already passed the German's win record, that will make Hamilton the most successful racing driver of all time.
Hamilton has said he wanted to wait to get the titles out of the way before he sat down to discuss his contract, and the complicating factor is coronavirus - Wolff was in Monaco, where Hamilton lives, before the last race in Portugal, but the two decided not to sit down to talk because they wanted to limit contact.
A positive Covid-19 test, after all, is just about the only thing that could derail Hamilton's season.
Wolff said: "I guess if Lewis were to decide to step out of F1 - which I don't think is going to happen - we are going to have a pretty frantic driver market. But it's the moment; it's the emotions.
"We are all happy, but very tired also. Same for me. I completely relate to this feeling that you question yourself and think about the other things that matter.
"On the news, it is all about the struggles we all face. We are here in our happy place where we try to bring in some entertainment to households, but then you are back in the more difficult reality next day and it affects us all in that respect. It is normal for someone empathetic to have these feelings.
"I think we go together - we have a symbiosis. It is important where our heart and mindset is for next year. This is our team but I am a very proud co-owner and I will not go anywhere.
"Nothing is ever secure. Like Niki Lauda in the 1970s, you can wake up and say: 'I don't want to carry on'. But we want to continue this journey. We are not finished, Lewis and I."
New goals already set
Mercedes are rewriting the F1 history books in a way that had previously been thought impossible until this remarkable team started stringing together its incredible run of success.
It has been achieved through constant evolution, adaptation and reinvention, a setting of new targets, an ambition to banish complacency and constantly look to the future.
"I really don't take it for granted," Hamilton said. "But you never get used to it. From tomorrow, we will be focused on what's next, on what can be better."
Hamilton can claim a record-equalling seventh world title at the Turkish Grand Prix
Wolff told a story of what he called "one of our tree-hugging exercises", back before the run of success got going.
A goal was mentioned - to win a drivers' and constructors' championship. But Aldo Costa - then their performance director, and who had been at Ferrari through their own record-setting period in the 2000s - said: "That isn't ambitious enough; we should aim for multiple titles."
"We felt at the time it was a bit far-fetched," Wolff said. "But thank God we put it up on the wall because it continues to inspire us every season.
"It means a lot of thinking and dreaming about what we could achieve in the future. And setting those objectives as a team - and personal objectives - is an important part of our exercise.
"Next year will be a transitional year with the same machines and then the big challenge of 2022 is on the doorstep, which will motivate us.
"Everything has been done to stop us. We all fight on a level playing field financially. Everything is capped. And I would like to see us continue to perform well even through this most dramatic regulatory change that has happened in F1."
Praise for Wolff from Hamilton
A special day for Hamilton and Mercedes deserved only one thing - a shoey on the Imola podium
Wolff - now the most successful team boss in the history of F1 - said he "felt a little bit embarrassed about taking too much of the credit, because everyone contributes in their area of expertise; everybody is part of this successful journey".
But Hamilton, while emphasising the collective effort, did single out Wolff.
"He's not trying to be at the front of every photo, he's not trying to claim anything," Hamilton said. "He puts the team first. Without doubt, he is the best leader here. No-one has done as good a job as he has.
"I think it's his mentality - the balance of drive, compassion, understanding and ego all come together to create the best boss you could have.
"Every single person in the team, no-one is below him and he really cares about how everyone is doing away from the track. He's a really great guy, man, and I feel really privileged to have him as our leader, and we wouldn't have been able to do this without his guidance."
And praise from Hamilton for the team
Hamilton has played his part, too, and not just on the track.
"What's really crazy for me is I was brought in to replace Michael [Schumacher], which was such a strange position to be in because I had watched this man dominate the sport and achieve such great things and he was stopping and I was going be taking his place," Hamilton said.
"The guys I worked with were his mechanics and engineers. What a privileged position to be in.
"But they had had a difficult time and I was able to put my stamp on the car and make a lot of alterations, particularly in 2013. And then we collectively worked together.
"It took so many incredibly hard-working people to really innovate and design some of the most incredible bits of the car.
"To watch it all come together is a real joy. The guys are so level-headed. I know they will be back at their desks already, working on what's next to try to get ahead of the curve. That's what this team has always been about."
Unsurprisingly, the admiration between driver and team is mutual.
"When Lewis turned up we knew he was going to be phenomenally quick," said chief engineer Andrew Shovlin. "But perhaps our misconceptions were that we didn't think he was necessarily going to be able to lead the team from a car development point of view.
"Often he would refer to feelings and things that were going on in the car that if you were looking at them in a strict engineering 'I know best, I'm an engineer' sense, you would think he was talking rubbish.
"But what he was actually feeling, while he may not have always described it in the right way, his ability to pick up on something that is not right - with the car's vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, his sense for what the car was doing - was incredible.
"And it was very early on that you learned to ignore him at your peril, because if he was telling you something wasn't right, you had to be pretty certain of your own facts, otherwise you could end up looking a bit silly down the line.
"We might be one of the most successful teams in recent history, or for consecutive championships. But it would be arrogant to suggest that result would be the same if Lewis hadn't made the decision to come and join this team.
"The question of how much is the car and how much is the driver is missing the point. It's about getting the right group of people together if you want sustained success.
"Winning consecutive championships is about getting all those ingredients right, and Lewis has definitely played a big part in getting that balance right within the team."
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