Hamilton already mentally at Ferrari? The Mercedes driver responds!
F1 News
If the results are not as hoped for and his teammate has also proved faster, questions were always going to be asked. Is Lewis Hamilton already mentally at Ferrari, the team for which the current Mercedes driver will race from 2025? Hamilton dismisses these claims.
A seventh-place finish in Bahrain, followed by a P9 in Saudi Arabia. It is not what makes a driver who became world champion no less than seven times happy. The Mercedes W15 does not appear to be able to compete with Max Verstappen's Red Bull Racing, yet the German manufacturer's car seems better than Hamilton's results suggest. George Russell managed to finish in P5 and a P6 in the opening races.
Ferrari, the team that will provide Hamilton with a fresh opportunity from 2025, did get two podiums, although the Italians were no match for Red Bull either. Perhaps Hamilton is waiting with some impatience for the time when he can step in at Ferrari, to also compete for at least the podium spots himself. However, the 39-year-old stresses that he is still fully motivated to race for Mercedes.
Hamilton calls Mercedes 'sole focus'
"I'm 100% a Mercedes driver right now, and thats my only focus this year. I don’t want it [switching to Ferrari] to be distracting me from doing the job for this team. I want to finish on a high," Hamilton said. "It's not just a normal driver partnering. There's no other team that's had what we've had. There's no other team that's achieved what we've achieved."
"The relationships I have with the people within my team go very deep. My goal is to deliver for them this year. If I can have the best year in terms of delivery, then I'll be really happy with that. Next year, I'm starting all new relationships, a whole new environment, new language, everything. It’s two separate things and probably just as exciting," Hamilton concluded.