After a disappointing season last year, 38-year-old Lewis Hamilton must be looking for well-needed redemption. For that, this year, 2023, needs to go much better than the previous two seasons. Although the 2022 year saw Lewis Hamilton nowhere near the title race, the 2021 season was pretty close for the Mercedes team. For the first time ever in his career, the seven-time champ had to go through a dry season without a single race win in 2022.
But in 2021, Lewis Hamilton, the defending champion, came very close to maintaining his title-winning streak. However, Max Verstappen of the Red Bull team took that chance away from him. Now Max Verstappen representing the Red Bull team, has become a two-time champion defending the title in 2022 quite comfortably.
According to sources, Technical difficulties, especially trouble with porpoising, mainly caused the Silver Arrows’ back-to-back failures. The Engineering team needs to get their Mercedes cars fixed as soon as possible before the 2023 season takes off in Bahrain. The drivers say that the season’s first part is crucial to start well.
Speculations And Doubts On Hamilton’s Future in Silver Arrows
The fans will be hoping that the Star of the Silver Arrows is at his natural best to win his ultimate defining title. With eight championships, Lewis Hamilton will become the greatest F1 racer of all time. But people have been speculating about the champion racer’s future for a long time as his contract with his team ends after this season.
However, there is not much to worry about so soon as Hamilton is an integral part of the team, and it’s very unlikely that their partnership will not continue for a few more years. Even in 2021, Lewis Hamilton extended his initial one-year contract to a multi-year plan that covered the 2023 season. Something very similar is expected to happen even this time around.
There is no rush, as the champ generally gets over with these silly negotiations late in winter seasons in the past. The speculations and the media pressure keep on increasing, especially after Hamilton’s comments in an interview with the German newspaper, Bild. These were getting too much to handle for the Silver Arrows to leave it till the winter.
Toto Wolff Sounds Positive About The Lewis Hamilton Issue
It seems like the big boss is planning to start “the talk” about extending their successful collaboration with Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff, the Austrian Executive, joined Silver Arrows the same year, 2013 when Hamilton joined as well. Their partnership with the Mercedes team has been truly fruitful.
The Big Boss sounded pretty confident as he expects it to be a matter of a few hours. It’s all about Hamilton being back in Europe with the team. There will be “wrestling a little,” but the process will be completed swiftly in no time.
The main reason for the delay in signing a new contract has been the globe-trotting plans of Lewis Hamilton. As he will need to return to Europe to complete the negotiations, according to the big boss. But Toto Wolff is not really concerned as he is reminded that there is still a whole year to go.