Toto Wolff has provided hope to Lewis Hamilton that he can win an unprecedented eighth world title with Mercedes by insisting his team will "get there" in their quest to reel in Red Bull.
The 2023 F1 season is only six races old, but already the outcome looks inevitable with Max Verstappen taking the chequered flag four times after his latest win in Monaco. The other two Grand Prix's have gone the way of his nearest challenger, teammate Sergio Perez, while the duo are already 129 points clear in the Constructors' race.
The Silver Arrows, meanwhile, have again struggled for pace, although arrived at the iconic Monegasque venue with new upgrades on their W14 cars. Wolff has spoken favourably about the adaptations, but neither driver finished on the podium with Hamilton fourth after recovering from a crash in free practice, and George Russell fifth.
But the Team Principle believes his team will ultimately be fighting at the front again, with next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix set to provide a better indication of where they're at: “It’s so difficult because we were in the mix with Aston Martin and with Ferrari I would say," Wolff told the official F1 website.
"But we really need to be careful, we need to go to Barcelona and collect more data. It’s a new baseline. I don’t expect us to be clearing Aston Martin and Ferrari [there]. It is more about understanding what does this car do now, how to set it up and we are really good at grinding away.
"Even with the old package which wasn’t that great, or was terrible at the start of the season, we managed to win a race in Interlagos [in 2022] in a dominant way. So we’re going to get there.”
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Those words come at the right time for Hamilton, with the 38-year-old's future currently the source of huge speculation. Amid the struggles at Mercedes, the British icon has been heavily linked with a move to Italian giants Ferrari, with the perception that the Scuderia are better placed to deliver him a record breaking eighth crown.
However, Hamilton last week quashed suggestions he was seeking a move, and is now expected to sign a new £50million deal to extend his 11-year stay with Mercedes: “When you're in contract negotiations there is always going to be speculation, and unless you hear it from me, that's all it is," he said, revealing he expected a deal to be signed within weeks.
"My team is working closely behind the scenes with Toto and we are almost at the point of having the contract ready. I'm having the team focused on that so I can just do my job. It's a much better position than I used to be in before, because I used to do the negotiations on my own and it was very stressful. I don't have to do that anymore."
