Toto Wolff describes the ‘new’ Lewis Hamilton mindset as 7x F1 champion seeks to fight back in search of glory days

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has seen his star driver Lewis Hamilton evolve over the course of the last decade as he reckons that the 7x world champion has transformed into 'Lewis 2.0' in recent times.

Hamilton joined the Silver Arrows in 2013 and has since been at the forefront of F1. Over the next decade, he added six titles to his tally, equaling Michael Schumacher's record to become the most successful driver in the sport.

After years of domination, Hamilton was dethroned by Max Verstappen and Red Bull who are currently in a league of their own. With Mercedes struggling the make the most of the new technical regulations, the star driver has not visited the victory lane since 2021.

Despite a drastic change in fortunes for Lewis Hamilton, Wolff said that the seven-time world champion has embraced the tough times and continually strives to be better on and off the track.

“He’s still able to scrutinize himself every day in order to become a better person, a better racing driver, a better manager, a better entrepreneur, and a better human being,” Wolff told US publication Broadroom.

“People who take it for a fact that ‘This is who I am,’ that’s not his attitude, not his mindset. It’s difficult to actually change your personality or your mindset, values, and learnings, but he does that. He embraces that,” he added.

Wolff stated that the 'new' Lewis Hamilton has been super supportive at Mercedes in recent times when they have not been at their best.

“He’s been super supportive when the team needed it, and that dynamic goes in both directions. When he’s not great mentally about how the car is going, we try to support him, and when you can see when the engineers didn’t know what to do next on the track on race weekend, it’s he who cheered everybody up and brought the right attitude as a driver,” he said.

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Lewis Hamilton opens up about his first year alongside George Russell

After toiling in the back of the grid for three years, George Russell finally got the Mercedes promotion as he was teamed up alongside Lewis Hamilton for the 2022 season.

Although Russell beat Hamilton in the standings at the end of the year, the points difference doesn't reflect how evenly the two were matched last season.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

Hamilton claims that his younger teammate was in a win-win situation as he drew parallelism to his time alongside Fernando Alonso in his rookie year.

“I would say last year, totally transparent, for sure I felt it,” he told M4 Sport. “George had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If he finished behind me they would say ‘well you finished behind a seven-time world champion’ and if he finished ahead then ‘you’re a legend’. I know exactly what that feeling was like and I had exactly the same with Fernando.”

This season, however, Lewis Hamilton clearly has the edge over the younger Brit.