Lewis Hamilton could ‘think career is over’ amid Mercedes struggles, says Jenson Button

Hamilton is getting beaten by his teammate as well as Red Bull and Ferrari

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton’s future depends on whether the seven-time world champion has the desire to keep on racing.

Hamilton has struggled to be competitive with Red Bull and Ferrari this season as he wrestles with an underperforming Mercedes car, reliability issues and his own pace which is being put to the test by his new teammate George Russell.

Russell has outperformed Hamilton so far in his debut season for the team, having switched from Williams in the summer, replacing Valtteri Bottas, and has finished inside the top five at every grand prix so far.

Button believes Hamilton could be struggling because the car’s performance has fallen off so drastically from last season, and his future will depend on his will to keep going.

“Speaking to Virgin Radio’s The Chris Evans Show, Button said: “I think the big shift for Lewis is he’s driving a car that isn’t competitive in his world.

“He’s been fighting for the world championship since 2014 and his teammate has come, young upstart George Russell, and he’s been competitive. Because George is driving a car that’s actually better than he was used to, it’s given him confidence and he can push a bit harder, whereas Lewis has probably not got so much confidence in the car to be able to extract the maximum out of it. When you’ve had a few bad races, it hurts mentally. This is a mental sport, it’s not just physical.

“Lewis, as we all know, is one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world at driving a Formula 1 car. He will be competitive again if he wants to be. That’s the thing: maybe he thinks his career is over and he wants to go and do something else. Who knows? But Lewis, if he has a car that’s good enough to win, he will win races.”

F1 returns this weekend with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.