Mercedes have had a tough few years with their car alongside fighting the rise of the Red Bull team, but it seems Lewis Hamilton isn’t even considering a move.
In recent months – and in fact, over the past two years – rumours have circulated about Hamilton potentially considering a move to another top team before he hangs his helmet up.
Today, as he prepares for his 17th season in Formula 1, the British driver shuts down the rumours and pledges his loyalty to the Mercedes outfit.
Speaking to written media in Bahrain he said: “I’m a fighter, and we fight as a team”.
He went on to say that he has made the most of the challenges faced by his team, and says they plan to continue working together into the future.
“I love the challenge of finding solutions and I still believe I’m able to put the car in places that perhaps others are not able to and I love that challenge.
“Of course I wish to be starting the season with a great car but it’s the journey I think that really counts.
“There is no hold up with our contract, I’ve always been very, very relaxed and don’t feel like I need to get it done right this second.
“I have a great relationship with Toto and Mercedes and we fully support each other. I’m really excited about the future together and the work we’re doing on and off the track”.
Toto Wolff ‘confident’ Mercedes has a car they can work with
Toto Wolff has said he believes that despite the issues met in preseason testing, the Mercedes team certainly have a piece of machinery they can work with this season.
The Team Princpal says the team is in fact ‘relishing’ in this new challenge and expects it to span the season’s 23-race run.
“We didn’t have the smoothest winter test in Bahrain,” he said in a recent team statement.
“We had some reliability problems and struggled with the car set-up on day two. But the key objective was to learn about the car, and we did lots of learning. We made good progress on the final day, which gave us directions to work on in the short period between the test and this weekend’s race.
“It’s always hard to have a clear picture of competitiveness at pre-season testing – and even more so with only three days of data available. Our expectations were that we would likely be playing catch-up to the front, based on how last year ended.
“That seems to be the case so far but we will only know for sure after this weekend. Nevertheless, we are confident we have got a car we can work with and are in a stronger position than 12 months ago.
“More importantly, we are relishing the challenge. This championship will be fought over 23 race weekends, and each one will give us an opportunity to improve”.
He went on to say that the team will be going ‘flat out’ this weekend and will keep the momentum up this season as they work to claw back some of the performance they are most famous for.
“The start of a new season is always exciting, whether you’ve been working in this sport for a few decades, years or weeks. So much hard work has gone into the W14 over the winter and the anticipation to be get racing has kept on building. We will be going flat out this weekend – and are determined to keep that going to the final lap in Abu Dhabi”.
