‘No stress’ between Hamilton and Wolff despite delay to new F1 deal

Hamilton is out of contract at the end of F1 2023, however, he’s reiterated his desire to remain with Mercedes, the team he’s won six of his seven titles with.

Even at 38, Hamilton remains amongst the top bracket of F1 drivers on the grid, with 2023 arguably his best campaign since 2020.

Hamilton has kept younger teammate George Russell at arm’s length on-track, particularly since Mercedes’ Monaco upgrade.

Even though the new deal still hasn’t been sorted, Hamilton is far from concerned, expressing his great relationship with Wolff and the team.

“Year after year, you learn more and more,” he told Sky. “It’s about growth, growing together, figuring out how to do that, both on and off track.

“Toto is a great boss, Mercedes have been huge supporters of mine for such a long time.

“I don’t think there is particularly stress between us. We trust each other. We have the same goals and we know that we can do that together.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s race at Zandvoort, Hamilton confirmed Mercedes have a number of minor upgrades.

The Dutch GP was one of Mercedes’ best weekends of the year in 2022, with Hamilton and Russell challenging Max Verstappen for the race victory.

“We have a couple of bits that the guys have worked on,” he added. “Not massive steps but every little counts. We understand the car more. I’m hoping each weekend we can put the car in a better window.

“Spa is not a great circuit for us but we still did relatively decent. 

“I’m hoping this weekend should be similar performance-wise to Budapest. Hopefully we can be competitive.”