31 August 2023 , 18:50
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Mercedes may have resolved the future of Lewis Hamilton and confirmed an extension for George Russell – but Toto Wolff still has one more driver to sort out.
The team's driver line-up will remain 100 per cent British for at least two more seasons. On Thursday, after many months of negotiations and not much movement, Mercedes finally announced that Hamilton had signed a two-year contract extension, believed to be worth £50m per year.
And Russell has also had extra time put on his deal so that it too expires at the end of the 2025 season. As we get closer to the new engine regulations which come into force the following year, the team and drivers will then be able to decide what they want to do going forward.
Before then, though, Wolff has a part to play in the future of Mick Schumacher. The German racer is Mercedes' reserve driver for this year, but desperately wants to get back onto the grid at the earliest opportunity.
It was never anticipated that there would be any room at him for Mercedes, while only four vacancies remain for 2024. Of those, there is the very real possibility that all the drivers currently filling those seats will do so again next year, leaving no room for Schumacher.
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The 24-year-old admits himself that "time is running out" for his 2024 hopes. "I can't name a timeline yet," he told Sky Germany when asked about his future at last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix. "I'm still working. Time is running out a little but I have to take my time."
Team principal Wolff has been hyping up the German all year long in the hope of finding a 2024 seat for him. And he did so again at Zandvoort when speaking to written media, including Mirror Sport.
"I think he deserves to be on the grid," he declared. "The moment you're not feeling confident in a car over a prolonged period, the more pressure you put on yourself [to] perform – and this has happened at Haas. If you win F3 and F2, there is high potential.
"I'm glad we have a third driver that I know will do the job if one of ours eats a bad fish, but the contribution in the in the simulator is tremendous – and that makes us sometimes do these big jumps from Friday to Saturday because he's driving his socks off overnight."