Toto Wolff delivers honest insight on Lewis Hamilton retirement fears

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has said that he was never worried Lewis Hamilton would retire from Formula 1 ahead of the coming season, though he appreciated his driver was disillusioned after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The controversial end to the 2021 season, and the silence on social media from Hamilton that followed, led to speculation that the Briton was going to walk away from the sport and retire from F1.

However, recent weeks have shown that he was purely taking a break from everything, and now he and the Silver Arrows are ready to fight again in 2022, with them revealing their new car earlier on Friday morning for the upcoming campaign.

And, speaking ahead of the W13’s unveiling to the BBC, Wolff has said that he was never worried that Lewis wasn’t going to be coming back for another year, though he did appreciate the Briton had probably felt a little disillusioned in the immediate aftermath.

 “No, I was never worried – although you have to respect the driver is disillusioned after such an event.

“But we have a strong team and great support so I knew he was going to come back.

“We all were disillusioned because the stopwatch never lies and Lewis was clearly the best guy on track in Abu Dhabi, dominating the race, and then it is taken away by a single individual against all the rules so to digest that is very difficult.

“Like all of us, there was an initial shock. We have never seen anything like that so he had to walk away, and free his mind and think about something else, and start to work on those events and find a solution.”