Mercedes’ “exciting young drivers” means they “will not run out of talent”

Six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has spent his time with Mercedes since 2013 but the two are yet to commit a future with each other beyond 2020.
 
The Silver Arrows have two of their junior drivers elsewhere on the grid with George Russell at Williams and Esteban Ocon, who is still managed by Mercedes, driving for Renault.
 
Max Verstappen had been linked strongly with a move to the World Champions before committing long-term to Red Bull until 2023, while Charles Leclerc did the same at Ferrari until 2024.
 
But Wolff doesn’t feel they are short on options in the driver market with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ contracts coming to an end this year.

“I think we have very exciting young drivers that are part of the Mercedes family, like George Russell, who is a Mercedes junior driver, who I foresee a bright future [for],” he said as quoted by Autosport.

“Then we have Esteban who is not too far away, who is with Renault today, but he’s a cousin of the Mercedes family today.

“And looking at Max and Charles, these guys will always strive to be in the fastest cars, and contracts are contracts, probably sometimes the detail is what is important and not the overhead line on how long a contract has been signed [for].

“And therefore, I see our duty in providing and producing the car that is the quickest, and then we will not run out of talent that will be keen and eager to drive these cars.”

Despite the uncertainty over Hamilton’s future Wolff is confident that he will remain a Mercedes driver.

“I think it is the obvious pairing going forward,” he added.

“We would like to have the fastest man in the car, and I know that Lewis wants to be in the fastest car so there’s an obvious mutual outcome.

“But you know, we travel around the world almost 10 months every year. We go on our nerves every second weekend. And what we do over winter is we leave each other in peace.

“The last conversation I had with him was in the evening before the Christmas party. We had a nice chat, that we would continue our discussion or start our discussion once he comes back from America and we have properly kicked off the season.

“I have great belief in the abilities of the team to attract the best drivers. And at the moment Lewis has proven that he is the best current driver with his six titles.

“And on the mid- and long-term, I would hope that we’re able to continue to provide technology to the best driver and attract them.”