Wolff: Hamilton is a 'free spirit'

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has claimed that he does not expect Lewis Hamilton to leave Formula One unexpectedly on a whim like the departure of Nico Rosberg from the Silver Arrows last year, but has admitted that the four-time world champion is a 'free spirit'.

Hamilton and Mercedes enjoyed a successful campaign in 2017 and claimed the driver's and constructor's championships respectively, with the Englishman equaling the four titles of Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost.

His current contract expires at the end of 2018, but talks are ongoing with Wolff and Mercedes about a likely extension.

Even though Hamilton is yet to sign on the dotted line, Wolff does not expect a departure from the sport out of the blue.

"I think Lewis is a free spirit," Wolff told ESPN.

"Lewis doesn't want to be put in a box with people saying, 'You need to behave like this and do this to be a racing driver'.

"One of the key things for him is to be free and be able to decide what he wants to do. And in a certain way, keeping all the options open is something that takes pressure off of him.

"He could be doing something completely different in a year or two or three's time and I am aware of that, but equally I know he will protect the structure and not just say, 'I'm out of here tomorrow'.

"But this is part of his strength actually."

Following the 2016 campaign in which Hamilton was involved in an ongoing feud with team-mate, Rosberg, there was tension between the Englishman and Mercedes, but Wolff insists the relationship now is stronger than ever.

"Somehow we have been working now with each other for five years and we are brothers in arms. We share the same objectives, we want to win as many races as possible and as many championships as possible, and this has bound us together, " he continued.

"Some frustrations built up in the last year due to the rivalry between Nico and Lewis and reliability issues that were on his car last year and we let it all out in the kitchen discussion.

"We acknowledged each other's frustrations and that is an important step forward in any relationship, to understand where the other one is coming from," the Mercedes boss admitted.

"This has helped and we've thought about it over the winter in so far that all the other things that were happening -- James [Allison] coming [as technical director] and Valtteri [Bottas] joining the team - the relationship has become much stronger.

"And on our joint journey, hopefully over some years to come, this is an asset."