Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton will fight for, and ultimately win, another F1 world championship if Mercedes provides him with a competitive car.
Since controversially losing the 2021 world title to Max Verstappen, Hamilton has been unable to compete for the title and has been forced to watch the Red Bull driver dominate on his way to claiming two more titles.
Mercedes has not won a race in two seasons, dating back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – 46 races ago – during an unprecedented two-year period of competitive struggles for the seven-time world champion.
Hamilton did win his first pole position in two years at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix and finished third in the championship behind the Red Bull duo, but he was no closer to ending his winless streak at the end of the season.
Wolff believes the 38-year-old British driver is still at the top of his game and only needs a car capable of challenging for the championship to deliver a record eighth world title.
“From Lewis’s perspective, he had a bad weekend,” Wolff said of Hamilton’s ninth-place finish in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“That doesn’t do anything about him being the greatest driver in the world, and if we are able to give him a car, then he will be fighting for a World Championship. I have no doubt.”
Mercedes are set to fundamentally change their car design for the 2024 season after enduring a frustrating campaign that saw the German manufacturer go without a grand prix victory for the first time since 2011.
“It’s clear that when you have a Formula 1 car like we have now, you are never at ease with it,” Wolff added.
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