Toto Wolff in "no doubt" over "greatest racing driver" Lewis Hamilton success outside F1

Mercedes

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Wolff in "no doubt" over "greatest racing driver" Hamilton success outside F1

But Hamilton still has work to do on track

Ewan Gale

Tuesday 1 November 2022 15:46 Updated: 11:38

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has "no doubt" that the "greatest racing driver" Lewis Hamilton will find success away from F1.

The seven-time champion is beginning to branch out from his racing activities, with his societal work in increasing diversity in motorsport being joined by fashion projects in recent years.

In the past few months, Hamilton has added part-ownership of the Denver Broncos NFL franchise and TV and film production company Apollo Dawn Films to his bow, amongst others.

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But the Briton has entered discussions over a new multi-year contract with the Silver Arrows, which would take him racing into his 40s.

“Lewis is totally mature and conscious about where he stands in his career," Wolff told the Performance People podcast.

“He’s not being led by his emotions, like I’ve seen with sportspeople that think it can go on forever and trying to hang on to it.

“Lewis is rational and intelligent about it. He says ‘I know I have a shelf life as a racing driver’. Lewis knows that one day he will not be the best himself anymore. That hasn’t happened yet.

“But we’ve been talking about it. He said ‘I’d love to continue…do you think we can do another five to 10 years?’

“I think he has a few good years left in him and he will be the first one to say ‘I don’t think I can compete against a 24-year-old that is as good as I was or even close to how I was’."

Hamilton a "really good sparring partner" - Wolff

Hamilton and Wolff have been key cogs in the most dominant era in F1 history, with the Silver Arrows taking the constructors' title on each occasion between 2014 and 2021.

With Hamilton taking six of those eight championships, adding to his 2008 triumph and drawing level with Michael Schumacher on seven titles, Wolff said: “I have no doubt Lewis Hamilton is not only the greatest racing driver, with Michael in a way, but he will also be successful in his own way, in a second or third career and reinventing himself.”

“We’ve grown very close together over the last eight years,”

“Grow is the right terminology because we’ve gone through difficult phases as well, and my learning was that I just need to try to provide the best possible framework for him in order to perform, and that might be also different than other people would perceive a relationship should be between the team boss and his driver.

“He’s really very intelligent and also socially intelligent. I’ve obviously dealt with him on our agreements three or four times now – and I have a real good sparring partner.”