Lewis Hamilton not planning to leave Mercedes despite W14 frustrations and poor start to F1 season

Lewis Hamilton has no plans to leave Mercedes despite his frustrations over the design of the new W14 car which has contributed to the team’s disappointing start to the F1 season.

2022 champion Verstappen finished first with teammate Sergio Perez just behind him in second, while Hamilton finished fifth – 50 seconds behind Verstappen – with his Mercedes team-mate George Russell seventh.

“In hindsight, I think looking back it wasn’t necessarily the best choice of words,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.

“Of course there are times where you’re not in agreement with certain team members, but what’s important is that we continue to communicate, continue to pull together.

“I still have 100% belief in this team, it is my family and I’ve been here a long time, so I don’t plan on going anywhere else.

“But we all need a kick, we all need to get on – the proof is in the pudding, we’ve seen where the performance is and how people are extracting the performance, and we’ve got to now start making some bold decisions, some big moves in order to close the gap to these guys.

“Hopefully at some point during the year, we’re hopeful we might be able to close the gap but at that point it will be probably too late in terms of fighting for a championship, but we can still turn some heads hopefully.”