F1 Rumors: Mercedes To Identify Lewis Hamilton s Perfect Co-Star
KEY POINTS
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff drops a huge hint at what could happen for Valtteri Bottas this season
Wolff says Mercedes might pick between Bottas and George Russell to be Lewis Hamilton s partner
The Silver Arrows are confident Hamilton will opt to stay for a little longer
The current Formula One season could help Mercedes-AMG Petronas to find the perfect teammate for Lewis Hamilton.
While Mercedes is still working on prolonging Hamilton’s contract, rumors began swirling around the sport that the second seat is now being deliberated with Valtteri Bottas and George Russell topping the list.
Braking Point: Understated Ocon getting back to his best
5 May, 2021
The past two years have been pretty hard on Esteban Ocon, the French driver once dubbed as Lewis Hamilton’s successor at Mercedes.
After his seat at Racing Point fell by the wayside he quickly found himself out of Formula 1 altogether, attending race weekends with a headset on and sat in the Mercedes garage throughout 2019.
A year out of full-time racing is tough to handle, especially for a young driver just a couple of years into his F1 career, and so it proved for Ocon. Going up against a fully-embedded Daniel Ricciardo at Renault, the Frenchman struggled. With George Russell continuing to impress at Williams, he looked to be slipping down the pecking order within Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton’s current contract was a long-running saga that was only resolved just weeks before pre-season testing began – and even then was only for one more year. His Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has no intention of letting it run that long next time around, and says he plans to nudge Hamilton on the subject soon.
Ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend, seven-time world champion Hamilton said his decision to volunteer to do tyre testing – which is something he not usually the first in line to do – showed how seriously he plans on being in Formula 1 next year.
When those comments were put to Wolff, the Silver Arrows boss said he was encouraged by what Hamilton said and is hopeful the partnership will continue into what would be a 10th season.
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