Toto Wolff denies ‘flirting’ with Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc before Lewis Hamilton renewal
On Thursday, Mercedes announced that Hamilton and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell would form th💎eir F1 driver line-up up until the end of 2025.
It ended all speculatiꦅon about Hamilton’s future amid tentative links to Ferrari throughout the season.
Le𓆉clerc was linked with a move to Mercedes if Hamilton decided to switch to Ferrari or retire from F1 completely.
Speaking after FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix to Sky, Wolff explained why Mercedes didn’t entertain the idea 🎉of talking to other drivers such as Verstappen or Leclerc.
"No. I’ve always said that when we renew, I ౠdon’t want to flirt outside if I have a good relationship, and only when I see that things are not going in the right direction then I would test the market, but I didn’t do it,” he said.
Hamilton has been outspoken in wanting to rema𓂃inও in F1 for many years to come - beyond his latest two-year deal.
Wolff shed light on why they only committed to two years, rather t🌸han꧙ a longer deal.
“Yes, we already signed in May but we didn’t tell anybody,” Wolff joked. “Keep a bit of suspense. In all seriousness we knew that we had an agreement, not only꧅ emotionally but on paper many weeks ago but it was just you get lawyers on the case and they find stuff.
“I think it comes from, in a way both sides in this day and age, things change. This is a dynamic environment. Signing a five-year contract means th🧜at you need to discuss is there any escape clause in case we are not p🍸roviding him with a car that is performing.
"So we didn’t entertain that. We said the foreseeable future is two years and th🌠at’s what we are co🌊mmitting to each other.”
With a sharp eye for F1’⭕s controversies and story﷽lines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
