Lewis Hamilton will be considering his F1 “exit plan” but is not likely to walk away any time soon, according to former Mercedes test driver Anthony Davidson. The Sky Sports pundit believes Hamilton will stay loyal to Mercedes despite the team’s ongoing struggles to match Red Bull at the front of the field.
Hamilton is yet to sign a new agreement to keep him at Mercedes with his current contract expiring at the end of the 2023 campaign. Davidson told the Evening Standard: “I’d be very surprised if he joined another team. He’s been with Mercedes since his karting days.
“He’d be getting to that age where he’d be thinking about an exit plan and what to do with the rest of his life. He could be a Mercedes ambassador for all time.” Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle has been among the leading pundits to suggest Hamilton would not be scared to leave Mercedes.
Ferrari has emerged as one of the frontrunners if the seven-time champion decided to walk away. Eddie Jordan even bigged up a move to the Scuderia, claiming that F1 “needs Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari”.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has even warned the team could lose Hamilton’s services if they were unable to provide him with a race-winning package. However, Davidson is confident Hamilton would stay at the Silver Arrows but failed to rule out that he could walk away.
But the former World Endurance Championship title winner thinks departing the Silver Arrows at this stage would not be a good career move. He added: “Put it this way, I’d be more surprised to see him change teams than walk away. But he says it with some conviction that he will carry on until he gets that eighth title.
“The team’s given him so much and they won their eighth title. You’d have to say that, if anyone can turn it around, it’ll be Mercedes. I’d say don’t have a knee-jerk reaction like Fernando Alonso in the past, which hasn’t worked out well for him until now. Just put faith in the team that they can turn it around.”
Hamilton publicly criticised his Mercedes mechanics over the direction of the W14. He called for engineers to “own up” and demanded “accountability” after revealing bosses didn’t listen to him over the winter,
But despite the speculation, Hamilton has repeatedly ruled out departing the German marque. He commented: “Of course, there are times where you’re not in agreement with certain team members, but what’s important is that we continue to communicate, continue to pull together.
“I still have 100 per cent belief in this team, it is my family and I’ve been here a long time, so I don’t plan on going anywhere else.”
