Remark about Hamilton ‘shelf life’ was ‘taken out of context’

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he was not implying Lewis Hamilton is past his best in a recent comment referring to his shelf life.

Wolff’s comment “I believe everyone has a shelf life” in a new book published by the team, was taken by some as a reference to Hamilton’s performance. The 39-year-old has had a season of mixed results including a pair of wins but also some conspicuously poor weekends, notably in Austin.

Hamilton is heading into his final three weekends as a Mercedes driver before he leaves to join Ferrari. Wolff has decided to replace him with 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

However the team principal said his reference to drivers having a “shelf life” was “taken a little bit out of context” in regards to Hamilton.

“What I was referring to is that, all of us, we age, whether it is in being in a car or on a pitch or as a manager or an entrepreneur,” he told the BBC. “And this is what I’m trying to do with myself, to understand am I going from great to good, because good is not in Formula 1 any more.”

Wolff believes Hamilton is still at the peak of his powers. “Contrary to my own self-assessment, I think we see with Lewis that he’s very much there when the car is right and we haven’t been able to give him that car for him to perform best. And that is a frustration that we equally have in the team and for himself.

“But he’s very sharp. He’s different to when he was a 20-year-old, that’s certainly clear, but his experience and his racecraft is tremendous.”

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Hamilton told Wolff at the beginning of the year he would leave Mercedes to join Ferrari in 2025. Wolff said he appreciated Hamilton’s attempt to minimise the impact of his departure on the team by giving him plenty of warning.

“We met in my house in Oxford and he basically said ‘this is a step I feel is good for all of us, it’s good for me to reinvent myself’.

“Every driver wants to be in Ferrari and it’s good for the Mercedes team, too, because we’ve been with each other for 12 years, so maybe we’re kind of reinvigorating ourselves. And that’s when he told me.

“Initially, obviously, it was a bit of a surprise, because it was at the beginning of the season, which was highly unusual. But also I think where he came from was a sense of fairness to say listen, I’m going to tell you very early, it may be awkward during the season, but so you can position the…