Sebastian Vettel in frame to join Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel is a strong contender to join Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes from next season, team principal Toto Wolff has admitted, as the reigning world champions consider creating the most decorated driver partnership in Formula One history.
Ever since the tempestuous clash of egos between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016, when the German took a surprise title, Mercedes have refused to countenance putting two A-listers together, preferring Valtteri Bottas as the pliant understudy to the sport’s one true superstar. But the re-emergence of Vettel on the market, after his shock departure from Ferrari, has triggered an abrupt change of thinking.
“We owe it to a four-time world champion not to say no straight away – we need to think about it,” Wolff said. “One of our drivers might decide that he doesn’t want to go racing any more, and suddenly you have a vacant spot. This is why I don’t want to come out in June and say: ‘No chance, Sebastian.’ I wouldn’t do that to him as a driver, to be blunt. I have seen black swans appear before where nobody expected it. Remember Rosberg? We are keeping our options open.”
Despite his recent struggles at Ferrari, Vettel is self-evidently the outstanding candidate for Mercedes in 2021 and beyond. He won four titles in a row for Red Bull from 2010 to 2013, and he has built a warm personal relationship with Wolff. As the most successful German driver since Michael Schumacher, he would also bring instant commercial results for Mercedes as they navigate a path through the economic chaos unleashed by Covid-19. “I don’t want to discount Sebastian, because who knows what happens over the next months?” Wolff said.
The pairing of two drivers with 10 world titles between them would generate huge interest for F1, but the unanswered question is whether Hamilton, seeking two more titles to surpass Schumacher’s record of seven, would agree to it. Quite apart from the memory of his Rosberg feuds, he has had tense battles with Vettel, not least when they angrily bumped wheels in Baku in 2017. On that occasion, Hamilton said that the German had “disgraced himself”.
Whether Mercedes have the appetite for more such moments is a moot point, but change is evidently afoot within the company. Questions persist over the next moves of Wolff, who recently bought a stake in Aston Martin. After presiding over six double championships with Mercedes, he acknowledged that his role could soon change.
“I don’t want to be a team principal who goes from great to good, who realises that he’s no longer adding as much to the team as he did at the beginning,” he said. “I still feel I can contribute a lot, but I’m contemplating my future.”
After a week in which Hamilton revealed he was “overcome with rage” at the death of George Floyd, which has sparked protests across the US, Wolff expressed solidarity with his driver’s views. “I have learned a lot from Lewis,” he said. “He asked me once, ‘Have you ever had the active thought that you are white?’ I said I had never thought about it. He explained that he needed to think about it every day. I think it’s good that Lewis is the one up front with this, in a sport that’s dominated by white males.”
