Toto Wolff interview: ‘Lewis Hamilton vs Max Verstappen will be a rivalry for the history books’

Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff have become intertwined. When Wolff wavered over his future during last season, so did Hamilton.

And when Wolff revealed he was staying put at the helm of the team he has headed up for the duration of Hamilton's time there, the seven-time world champion's future was also effectively sealed.

Now both have been reinvigorated by what looks to be a season-long challenge posed by Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

"I love it and all of us in the team love it," said Wolff. "For seven years, we've been a little bit in the same trot. We needed to defend our position as the one that set the benchmark and this year we are the hunters. Hunting is much more fun than looking over your back."

Talk of the hunt is perhaps a little disingenuous, with Hamilton and Mercedes leading the drivers' and constructors' championship, but it is clear the team found themselves on the back foot in winter testing.

This weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, it is a battle that again looks nip and tuck, and a potential game-changer for the sport.

"We've seen in the past there are historic rivalries," he said. "In the Schumacher years, there was no one really to fight it, no one in the Vettel era. This looks like a rivalry for the history books."

Where Hamilton stands in the ranking of greats, Wolff will not say, simply that he is at the heart of the conversation. "You can't really compare, but what's common to all these people is tremendous talent and work ethic," he said.

"I know how it feels in a racing car to extract the last tenths but having someone with so much more cognitive ability sensing what the car will do is something very rare. If you add intelligence — he's really very intelligent — it's the ingredient of a great champion."

It is a rivalry set to stretch beyond this season, with Hamilton hinting last week he was ready to agree a new deal beyond his current one-year contract.

Of those negotiations, Wolff said: "We are discussing this and the alignment between Lewis and the team is great, the relationship that we have between him and me is a relationship of trust. Therefore, there wouldn't be a better place than Mercedes and equally we wouldn't want to have any other driver."

It throws up the question of who drives alongside him next season, seemingly a straight fight between the current incumbent in Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton's one-race stand-in from last season, George Russell.

No decision has been made at present but Wolff says of Russell he is "someone that can definitely be part of Mercedes's future", and more. "I definitely see him as a future world champion," added the Austrian. "He has the character traits, the ability and the work ethos to achieve that.

"Obviously, there are many other factors like being in the right car at the right time that come into play but he definitely has the abilities."

Toto Wolff

With Hamilton and Wolff, there is a duality to their quest, to continue their F1 dominance, while also improving diversity and the anti-racism message.

Mercedes opted against joining the Premier League-led social media blackout, which Hamilton, Russell and Lando Norris all got behind, but stressed that the team "support it but maybe look at it from the sidelines".

But there is an awareness Hamilton's campaigning could help rather than hinder keeping him at the team and in the sport.

"I think he needs to utilise his voice while racing and being the sport's superstar he is today," said Wolff.

"It provides him with a great platform and credibility, and therefore I can understand that racing is what he loves to do and his purpose, but equally there's as much purpose and passion in his fight against racism, which is obviously the much bigger issue that needs to be resolved."

Back to the grid fight, the aim of Formula One bosses is to create a concertina effect on the 10 teams, with closer racing by ripping up the rule book at the end of this season.

While Wolff would be loath to give up the long-held championship status of both the team and Hamilton, team boss and driver would relish a rivalry beyond just Verstappen.

"There's no reason for us not to be among the top teams whether we hunt or are hunted," he said. "Both are fun and next year we will have more teams able to win races. It would be even more fun to have three or four or five teams fighting in every championship."

For now, it is just two teams and two drivers — Hamilton and Verstappen.

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