Hamilton at odds with Wolff as admission made about Mercedes' F1 2024 car

Hamilton’s comments were in response to Wolff saying Mercedes would have no issues throwing away their “really fast” but inconsistent W14 at the end of the year, before embarking on a “new journey” with their 2024 challenger. 

Mercedes have endured another frustrating season playing catch up to the dominant Red Bulls and have been unable to win a race so far this year. 

Hamilton said Mercedes will “hold onto the positives” from their current car, rather than discard it completely.

“We won't ever bin the car, of course,” the seven-time world champion said ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. 

“These cars are still masterpieces, really, even if they're not. It's not the fastest car in the world, but 2,000 people have worked so hard to build these things and they'll continue to be a part of our history and learning curve.

“They’ll be bits of it that we try to change, trying to hold onto some of the positives, because there’s always positives. So we're trying to hold on to the positives and add some new.”

Wolff also claimed Mercedes have already seen “encouraging signs” from the wind tunnel about their W15 challenger but Hamilton thinks it is “far too early” to be optimistic about his team’s chances for 2024. 

“With the new direction we have, it's far too early to say and to be optimistic about next year's car, because we are just in the process of going into that,” he explained. 

“But have full faith in the crew that they're going to take it in the direction that it needs to go. 

“There's been a lot of learning in these past two years, so if we haven't figured it out by next year, then obviously we'll just keep working away at it. But I'm hoping that they have.”