Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari has caused a major shake-up in the driver’s market for the 2024 season. Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, has expressed his displeasure with Lewis Hamilton for pressuring him to find a replacement driver for 2025. Hamilton has won six of his seven world championships with Mercedes, and in August 2023, he signed a two-year contract extension with the team in the hopes of finishing his career there. However, he surprised everyone in February by announcing his decision to sign a multi-year contract with Ferrari starting in 2025. This has left Wolff with the task of finding a suitable replacement for Hamilton, which is proving to be a risky endeavor. Many drivers will be eager to join Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season.
Wolff has stated that he is not in a rush to make a decision on the driver for 2025. He will take his time and carefully evaluate the market before making a choice. However, he acknowledges that finding a replacement for Hamilton will not be an easy task.
Toto Wolff, the manager of the Mercedes team, unfortunately believes that the Red Bull driver will dominate nearly every race in Formula One in 2024. This driver, a three-time world champion, is aiming to win the championship for the fourth consecutive year in 2024. He has established himself as the top driver in the sport in recent years, as evidenced by his second-place finish in the race.
Wolff predicts that Mercedes will face tough competition from Ferrari and McLaren in the 2024 Formula One season, as shown in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Mercedes sacrificed some performance in order to improve their race pace, but it remains to be seen if this strategy paid off. Hamilton and George Russell encountered battery problems during the race, resulting in a loss of power. Russell estimated that this cost them four tenths of a lap.
Red Bull was the dominant team in the race, while Mercedes struggled to keep up. Hamilton and Russell finished in fifth and seventh place, respectively. Mercedes has not stood on the top step of the podium since Russell’s victory in the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. With Russell leaving for Ferrari and new regulations coming in 2026, the team will need to put in a lot of work to challenge the front-runners once again.