Lewis Hamilton will win his eighth F1 title, assures Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff

Despite Mercedes' pace during the first qualifying session of the season, Toto Wolff is confident that Lewis Hamilton can win his eighth world championship with Mercedes.

Mercedes had a generally tough time during the qualifying sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix, especially with Lewis Hamilton, who, even after all the expectations from the W14, could only qualify P7, behind his teammate.

Team principal Toto Wolff spoke about the issues that the team faced during the session and although he revealed that the team only ran a single tire at the end, the expectations were still higher. Sky Sports quoted him as:

"The gap is not ridiculous considering we only ran one tire at the end, but it is not where we want to be. We are continuing to develop the concept and thinking we could land it and fight for pole position and that wasn't the case today."

Wolff revealed that the team's working hard on the concept of the car, and while it should have been sorted out earlier, they are now working rigorously to do so. He feels that the team could have been ahead of Fernando Alonso, who put in a surprising lap and qualified P4 with the Aston Martin, ahead of Mercedes. Wolff added:

"There is no such thing as a wholly car, we are looking at everything to get it right with the concept, should we have reacted earlier, all of that. Everybody in the engineering team thinks like that and we just need to get our act together."

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Wolff feels that Lewis Hamilton has 'another four years in him,' in reference to Fernando Alonso

Toto Wolff feels that the Briton has enough time left in Formula 1 to win his eighth world championship. Lewis Hamilton turned 38 this January, making him the second oldest driver on the grid. Presently, the oldest driver on the grid is Alonso at 41 years old.

Using him as an example, Wolff stated that Hamilton has a minimum of four years left before he retires, and within that time, Mercedes will most likely get him to win his eighth title, even if Wolff has to push Hamilton towards it:

"We're going to get his eighth. He has, compared to Alonso, another four years in him as a minimum, so we just need to get it done. Even if I have to push him around the track to win the eighth, I am going to do everything that is needed."

While it does sound encouraging for Lewis Hamilton to set another record in the books of Formula 1, it also reveals that the team's struggling to find a winning pace. Although they might be strong enough to win a few races, they're expected to upgrade a lot if they want to have any chance at the title this year.

At the same time, George Russell has been pretty impressive against Hamilton. There's a strong possibility that he could turn out to be one of the contenders for the championship if the team develops enough.