LEWIS HAMILTON has hinted at a possible career change with boss Toto Wolff.
Hamilton and Wolff have worked together since 2013, yielding record-breaking success in F1.
However, at the age of 38, Hamilton may feel his racing days could soon be behind him.
He has a contract with Mercedes until 2025, but has continued to expand his portfolio into a number of business ventures.
Many of these have come with help from Wolff.
And Hamilton suggested their partnerships could make some changes over the next few months.
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As quoted by Speedcafe, Hamilton said: “Toto and I are in contact every week, all the time. We’re good friends, very, very good friends, we’re team-mates.
“We do a lot of talking about cars, we hang out when I’m back home, we have lunch.
“I’m always trying to learn from Toto as a businessman, and he’s always massively supportive. You’re going to see some things shift over the next couple of months, into next year maybe.
“You’ve already seen my progress, and he has been such a huge part of that, being open-minded and allowing me to be who I am.
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“Together we’ve unlocked so much, and we’ve done so much more than I think any other partnership that you’ve seen in this sport on many levels.”
Wolff has been absent from the last two races after undergoing surgery on a cruciate ligament.
However, this did not stop Wolff from being involved in race weekends.
Hamilton said: “Toto’s in every meeting. And he’s on the comms, just like the guys back at the factory are on the comms for strategy over the weekend.
“He’s still 100 per cent fully a part (of the team). He’s just not physically there in the country.
“He’s worked incredibly hard to set up this team to be where it is today, and he should be able to have weekends off without a problem. He’s the boss.
“Shoot, if I owned the team, I’d definitely take weekends off. That’s your prerogative. It’s not that he’s taking the weekend off but you know what I mean.
“He has the right to if he wanted to, but it’s just because he’s recovering.
“I just always tell him, ‘Don’t worry, you’ve set up a great team, and we’ll try and do you proud this weekend’, and that’s what I do.”
Wolff certainly would have not wanted to see Hamilton crash out on lap one after trying to overtake George Russell on the first turn on the Qatar GP.
Addressing the crash in public for the first time, Wolff said: “The last round in Qatar was a case of what might have been.
“As a team, you never want to see your cars collide. It was frustrating to leave a lot of points on the table, particularly as the pace of the car was strong.
“It was encouraging though to see how the drivers and the team reacted. Both Lewis and George know the team comes first and do not ever intend to jeopardise that.
“I am sure we will all grow from this moment. We’re now focused on Austin and making sure we get the most out of each upcoming weekend.”
Hamilton was slapped with an FIA fine for walking across the track after his crash.
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The FIA are now “revisiting” the incident in light of his “role model status”.
Hamilton and Co will be in action once again at next weekend’s America GP in Austin, Texas.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
