Toto Wolff makes big Lewis Hamilton prediction after ‘bad spell’ continues in Austria

Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton has at least one win left in him at Mercedes before he departs for Ferrari at the end of 2024.

Hamilton hasn’t won a race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but, with Mercedes’ performance improving recently, Toto Wolff has vowed to give him at least one more before he departs for Ferrari.

Toto Wolff: Bad spells can be ‘mind-crushing’ for an F1 driver

Hamilton watched on from fourth place at the chequered flag of the Austrian Grand Prix, as teammate George Russell secured the win after picking up the pieces when Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided in the closing stages.

It was Russell’s and Mercedes ‘ first win since the 2022 Sao Paolo Grand Prix, and made the Brackley team the fourth outfit to win a race in what has been, so far, a competitive 2024 season.

Hamilton had a tough race in Austria, marred by floor damage costing him a quarter of a second a lap, on top of a five-second time penalty he picked up for crossing the white line on pit entry.

But Wolff is confident Hamilton is simply going through a run of poor fortune, and will emerge on the other side before he leaves for Ferrari – and even predicted he can win a race himself before season end.

“He has a bad spell. And as a racing driver, it can be mind-crushing if you feel that you’re not able to deliver your best performances,” Wolff told Ted Kravitz on his Notebook on Sky F1 following the race in Austria.

“I saw him now, he needs to go through this. This is not a situation that, suddenly, he’s unlearned driving, on the contrary.

“He had a brilliant race in Barcelona. So we’ve just got to dive through this and we’re gonna win a race with him this year.”

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Toto Wolff: Absolute peace in relationship with Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton cuts ties with Mercedes at the end of 2024, having spent more than a decade with Brackley and creating the most successful driver/team partnership in the history of the sport during that time.

Wolff and Hamilton have worked closely together since 2013, and the Austrian said he was aware when he signed Hamilton to a contract with a short-term exit clause that another team could swoop for his services.

Before 2024 even began, Hamilton was tempted over to Ferrari, meaning a long one-year goodbye – but there hasn’t been any tension between the two sides despite this decision.

“There is a professional and a personal relationship and when he signed a very short-term contract [last year], it was clear that could happen,” Wolff told Sky F1.

“What was bruising is that I didn’t have any time to react. It was basically the same day [finding out and the public announcement]. And when I said, ‘Okay, how are we going to announce this? The beginning of the season or mid-season?’

“It was clear it was leaking from Ferrari. And it was happening to fall on the day of earnings.

“That didn’t give me enough time to do some stakeholder management, call our sponsors, the shareholders and explain what was happening. That was the only thing.

“But I somewhere read a good motto, ‘Play hard, forgive quickly and apologise when you’re wrong’. And the personal relationship [with Hamilton] doesn’t suffer.

“If I put myself in his shoes, I can understand because the team wasn’t doing very well.

“When you’re in the last phase of your career, everyone wants to wear red overalls with a yellow prancing horse. Probably the financial terms were also very positive.

“So I kind of got my head around it and why he’s doing that, and I have absolute peace with him in my relationship that goes much deeper.

“For 12 years we’ve been friends and allies and brothers in crime and he’s got to be competitive in the car but we haven’t divorced as friends.”

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