Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had long stated that contract talks for the Brit would be delayed until after he had secured the Drivers Championship, with his win at the Turkish Grand Prix securing his title.
However, after Hamilton contracted COVID-19 prior to the Sakhir Grand Prix, these talks were delayed even further.
Sir Lewis is still yet to agree terms on a new deal with the team he has driven for since 2013, leaving Mercedes as the only team yet to confirm their full driver lineup and currently leaving the 94 time race winner, without a team.
Inevitably while negotiations continue, speculation has only increased about who could take Hamilton’s seat, with George Russell certainly the fans favourite to take the seat.
The 22-year old has been at Williams for the past two seasons, and drove for Mercedes at the Sakhir Grand Prix after Hamilton was ruled out with COVID-19, narrowly losing to his teammate Valterri Bottas in qualifying.
Russell performed strongly, and was on course for a maiden F1 win, until a number of mistakes from the team eventually left him finishing ninth, but succeeded in doing nothing aside from increasing the excitement about his talent.
However, there is still a lot of doubt whether Hamilton will even be replaced. Park Life Sports spoke with Autosport F1 reporter Luke Smith believing it doesn’t make sense for either party.
“There’s never really been much of an intention from either side to not renew, ultimately it works best for both parties, both have had so much success.”
Smith also suggested that Mercedes didn’t seem to be actively looking towards Russell or any other driver for the seat this season, with the teams marketing a big indicator of their plans.
“I think Mercedes are also not currently making any backup plans in case Hamilton was to not continue, he has been involved with their promotional material, which gives us a steer as to where they are aiming.”
Hamilton is one of five F1 drivers to have contracted COVID-19 so far, with Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll also missing races during the season due to the virus, with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc contracting it postseason.
Norris contracted COVID-19 whilst in Dubai, which has seen a number of athletes who recently travelled there contract the virus, with Celtic and Arsenal Women’s team amongst the clubs who had positive tests after travelling there.
This does raise questions for some towards the precautions taken by the drivers after the season, with Smith suggesting that some of the drivers need to take added precautions during this time.
“I think the onus is on the drivers really to weigh things up, they need to stay safe, and they need to make sure they do take precautions to make sure their pre-season testing isn’t too effected.”
With Pre-Season – one of the most important times of the year for F1 teams – taking place from March 12-14th in Bahrain, question marks still arise whether Hamilton will be there, although it certainly seems like that is becoming an increasing doubt.
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