Toto Wolff has lived up to his promise of a race win for Lewis Hamilton as the duo prepare to part ways at the end of the season.
Before Sunday’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton had gone 945 days without finishing a race in first place. The last time he did so was in the 2021 Saudi Grand Prix as he battled to win a record-setting eighth world championship.
It has been a tough three years since he controversially lost out to Max Verstappen, with Hamilton failing to win a race in that time. Instead, he has finished second nine times, with Red Bull having dominated.
But now his wait is finally over, just over a week after Wolff promised to end his hoodoo. The Mercedes team boss was speaking after the Austrian Grand Prix, in which Hamilton finished fourth as his team-mate George Russell won.
“He has had a bad spell and, as a racing driver, it can be mind-crushing if you feel that you are not able to deliver your best performances. I saw him now. He needs to go through this,” Wolff told Sky Sports.
“This is not a situation that he has suddenly unlearned driving – on the contrary, things have come together. He had a brilliant race in Barcelona. We’ve just got to go through this, and we are going to win a race with him this year.”
Hamilton was left in tears after his win in Sunday’s race, having held off Lando Norris and Verstappen to come home in first. He waved a Union Jack towards the jubilant Silverstone crowd and admitted it had been tough to control his emotions.
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Hamilton held off Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to come home first in the British Grand Prix (
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
“I can’t stop crying! It’s been since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team,” he said.
“This is my last race here at the British Grand Prix with this team [before moving to Ferrari], so I wanted to win this so much for them, because I love them, I appreciate them so much, all the hard work they’ve been putting in all over these years.
“I’m forever grateful to everyone in this team, everyone at Mercedes, all of our partners, and otherwise to all our incredible fans… I could see you lap by lap as I was coming around, and there’s just no greater feeling [than] to finish at the front here.”
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Hamilton added that his long wait for a win had made the last three years extremley difficult. But he is now keen to look to the future and praised the Merecedes team for sticking by him.
“It’s so tough, I think for anyone,” he added. “I think the important thing is just how you continue to get up, and you’ve got to continue to dig deep even when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel.
“There’s definitely been days between 2021 and here where I didn’t feel like I was good enough, or whether I was going to get back to where I am today, but the important thing is I had great people around me, continuing to support me.”
