Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has moved to warn Lewis Hamilton that the planned upgrades to his car won't mean an instant return to F1 success.
The 2023 campaign has thus far been a turbulent one for the Silver Arrows, with both Hamilton and George Russell struggling to keep pace with Red Bull. And the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend proved another difficult one, with the seven-time world champion only good enough for P6, two places above his team-mate.
Hope has emerged, though. All F1 teams now head to the US for next weekend's Miami Grand Prix, before the next race in Imola, from May 19-21. And Wolff has targeted having the improvements firmly in place in time for San Marino.
The development clearly can't come soon enough for the 38-year-old, who admitted in Baku: "I think we knew already from quite early on that we would have quite a few races until this upgrade. So it's just counting the days down or counting the weeks down."
But his Team Principle has sounded caution, admitting the upgrades won't be enough to suddenly overhaul Red Bull. "The target (for the upgrade) is Imola but I need to manage everybody’s expectations," he said, via The Independent. “We are talking so much about the upgrade but we are not going to put it down on the track and drive circles around Red Bull.”
Wolff will know that the success of the upgrades could potentially be pivotal to Hamilton's future. Contract negotiations with the F1 icon are currently ongoing, with speculation mounting that he will retire if he can't be given a competitive car.
But amid his struggles in Baku, Hamilton told reporters he's thinking beyond his current contract, which finishes at the end of 2023: "I'm thinking long term. I don't want to stay here for another year. I want to stay longer."
Hamilton failed to win a single race in the 2022 campaign, the first time in his career he'd gone through an entire campaign without taking the chequered flag. After one podium place in the opening four races this time around, he lies fourth in the standings, 45 points off current leader Max Verstappen.
But for once, it wasn't Hamilton involved in a controversial on-track incident with the Dutchman and a Mercedes car on the weekend. Instead it was Russell who collided with the world championship leader during Saturday's sprint race, prompting an angry exchange between the pair and an x-rated insult from Verstappen.
