"When someone faster comes, we’ll talk": Fernando Alonso backs Mercedes' decision to keep Lewis Hamilton 

Fernando Alonso has backed Mercedes' decision to keep Lewis Hamilton for two more years. The seven-time world champion will be over 40 years old by the time his current contract expires with the German team. Conventionally a driver of that age is expected to perform at a very high level.

Alonso, however, has already shown that this is not the case for everyone. The 42-year-old Spaniard is still brilliant behind the wheel and one of the best drivers on the grid. When asked about his views on Mercedes keeping Hamilton, the Aston Martin driver stated that this was the right thing to do.

Claiming that no one had shown that he could do a better job than Lewis Hamilton in an F1 car, Fernando Alonso told Mundo Deportivo:

“Until now, no one has shown it to me so far. Age can sometimes be a problem with demotivation, or you see that you are no longer at 100% of your performance – or your focus and your concerns are other than F1. Something like that can happen with age and because of the life we have."

“But in the case of Hamilton, who continues to perform at 100 percent and his concern is F1 – like in my case – it isn’t a problem. When someone faster comes, we’ll talk, but at the moment, Hamilton is faster than anyone,” he added.

Lewis Hamilton looking to achieve more success at Mercedes

In the media release of his contract extension, Lewis Hamilton claimed that Mercedes is hungrier than ever for success. The Brit has been part of the team for more than a decade now and the added two years with Mercedes will take the association to 13 years.

"We have never been hungrier to win. We have learnt from every success but also every setback. We continue to chase our dreams, we continue to fight no matter the challenge and we will win again. I’m grateful to the team who have supported me both on and off the track. Our story isn’t finished, we are determined to achieve more together and we won’t stop until we do," Hamilton said.

These will be two very interesting seasons for Lewis at Mercedes. He will be hoping to achieve success with the team during this period and challenging for the title has to be a pre-requisite for the combination.