"He's always hungry" - Lewis Hamilton's strengths reiterated by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff ahead of a resurgent 2023 F1 season

Lewis Hamilton is always hungry and driven to achieve more and more in the sport. That is the view of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. In a recent appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Wolff was asked what was on his task list for the next few months. The Austrian admitted that the list was quite an extensive one, and one of the biggest tasks among them was getting the contract extension with Lewis Hamilton out of the way.

Lewis Hamilton's contract runs out at the end of the 2023 F1 season but the Mercedes driver has shown interest in getting a new extension signed and out of the way. Talking about the task list, Toto Wolff said,

"The job list is pretty long in what's needed to be done [before 2023]. But certainly Lewis' contract is one of the topics that we will tackle over the winter, but there is no firm deadline."

When questioned if he was confident that Lewis Hamilton would sign the extension, Wolff had no doubts as he said,

"Absolutely. Lewis is part of the team and the team is part of Lewis, [so there is] no reason to not continue. I think one of his strengths is that he's always hungry. He's always eager. He is a great sportsman, but he's also someone that's extremely driven and determined."

Lewis Hamilton got his fire back in the 2022 F1 season: Dutch F1 pundit

In a recent podcast, Dutch F1 pundit Tom Coronel revealed that he felt Lewis Hamilton had lost the fire early in the 2022 season but as the season progressed, it was obvious that he had slowly gotten things back on track. He said,

"At the start of the season I was like ‘it’s time to go’. I really thought so. I don’t even know if it was so much the motivation. The blow you take as a sportsman after last year, of course you don’t just get over it. It gnaws in your head and you have sleepless nights. Everyone has that, no matter how such a great sportsman you are, so I think it was not so much the motivation with Hamilton."

He added,

"Lewis lacked the positivity in those first months, but that gradually came back – actually from Barcelona little by little. Then I saw him bite again, just as we are used to from him. At the end of the season he was really strong again."

The 2023 F1 season is going to be crucial for Hamilton. With Red Bull's cost cap penalty leading to a shortened development time for the Austrian team, Max Verstappen may be vulnerable in his title defense, making it the perfect opportunity for Hamilton and Mercedes to capitalize on the situation and aim for anothet championship.