Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has expressed he’s been taken aback with Lewis Hamilton’s “good mood” despite his struggles at the start of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton has sustained his worst start to an F1 season since 2009 this term, with 19 points from the first five rounds leaving him ninth in the Drivers’ Championship.
The Briton’s underwhelming beginning to the campaign has come amid Mercedes enduring a continuation of the difficulties it had faced over the previous two seasons.
But according to Wolff, Hamilton, who will depart Mercedes to pursue a new venture with Ferrari in 2025, has remained in an upbeat frame of mind over recent times.
Wolff is unsure as to the reasons behind Hamilton’s positive mental state but has suggested that Ferrari’s impressive opening to the term could be a controlling factor.
The Italian marque has registered five podium finishes – including a 1-2 finish in Australia – to sit a comfortable second in the standings, 99 points ahead of Mercedes.
“Lewis is in a surprisingly good mood,” Wolff told ServusTV.
“I don’t know if it’s the knowledge that he will go somewhere else next year, but it’s not like him at all – he’s a true professional.”
Hamilton experienced a promising start to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend as he secured second place in the Sprint, citing he “forgot what it felt like to be up ahead”.
Both Hamilton and Wolff revealed post-race that the seven-time F1 champion trialled an extreme set-up that backfired and caused him to deal with severe understeer.
But while Hamilton has taken on set-up experiments since F1 reverted to ground effect cars in 2022, Wolff reckons the loss of engineers is more integral than a driver.
“The fact is that the driver’s role in the development of the vehicle is always very overestimated,” Sky Germany quoted Wolff.
“There is input once a year for the upcoming vehicle development and during the year simply feedback on how the car drives.
“It’s worse to lose an engineer if he goes to another team 12 months later than a driver who changes teams next week.”
He has got red horses shining in his eyes.