Toto Wolff doubts if 'GOAT' Lewis Hamilton will become world champion again

20:41, 03 Aug

Updated: 21:58, 03 Aug

byTim Kraaij

Toto Wolff thinks that Lewis Hamilton is still the 'GOAT', despite his lesser performances at Ferrari. However, when asked whether Lewis Hamilton could win an eighth world title, there are doubts from the Mercedes team principal.

Lewis Hamilton was a beaten man both after qualifying and Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. The Briton even mentioned that Ferrari should 'change the driver' – referring to himself. Hamilton had a bad weekend and speaks from his heart, as Wolff knows all too well.

"That is Lewis wearing his heart on his sleeve. That is what he thought very much when he was asked after the session. It was a low session," he began to GPblog among others.

"We had it in the past when he felt that he underperformed his own expectations and his teammate was on pole. He's been emotionally transparent since he was a young boy, a young adult. He's got to build himself up."

"He's the GOAT (the Greatest Of All Time), and he will always be the GOAT, and nobody's going to take that away from him, for sure not a single weekend or a race season that hasn't gone to plan. That's something he needs to always remember. That he is the greatest of all time," the Briton's former team principal continued.

Can Lewis Hamilton become a Formula 1 world champion again?

The interviews Hamilton has given have led people to question if the end of Ferrari driver's career in Formula 1 is getting closer to the end. Wolff continued: "Lewis has unfinished business in Formula 1. In the same way that Mercedes underperformed over this latest set of regulations since 2022, I never got happy with the ground effect cars."

"Maybe it's linked to driving style. So, he shouldn't go anywhere. Next year brand new cars, completely different to drive, and with new power units. There's even an intelligent way of managing the energy so that's absolutely on for Lewis. And I hope he stays on for many more years and certainly next year is going to be important."

Still, it was Toto Wolff who gave Lewis Hamilton a 1+1-year deal because the team wanted to prepare for the next generation with Andrea Kimi Antonelli. When asked whether Lewis Hamilton will win his eighth world title, that caution becomes apparent.

"I think if he has a car underneath him that he has confidence in, that does what he wants, then yes. If he has a car that is not giving him the feedback that he wants, and that was the Mercedes of the past few years, and that seems to be the Ferrari, maybe even worse, then not. But you ask me whether he has it, he definitely has it."