Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has promised not to play favourites between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, despite Hamilton's shock decision to leave the team at the end of the year and join rival squad Ferrari.
Wolff said that with no new regulations coming in for 2025, and development work for next year already well underway, there is little new technical development work that the team would need to hold back from Hamilton.
"What I've always tried to do as a team principal, and all of us at Mercedes, is to be transparent and fair,” Wolff insisted in comments to the media on Friday. “And nothing's going to change in that respect in 2024.
“We owe it to our principles and our racing intent, how we go about, and we will respect that," he added. "And I will be sure that the drivers will respect it.
"It's definitely a new situation to manage," he acknowledged. "Balancing 2024 Mercedes interests versus 2025 driver interests is something that we will openly discuss at the beginning, how to manage that.
"It's something that when you focus on the really short term - and this is the racing team that's being deployed to run the product - it doesn't have a big impact on everything that's happening going forward on the development side.
"It's something which we need to look at. The regulations stay pretty much the same, and when it comes to 2025 we will evaluate later in the season what it means in terms of technical information."
The issue may become more pressing toward the end of the season when teams start turning their attention to the next generation of cars for 2026 which follow major rules changes come into effect, but Wolff still isn't too worried.
“We have engineers that leave us and go to other teams and the notice periods are sometimes as short as six months, so I don't have any doubt in Lewis' integrity in terms of sharing information.
"We want to make sure that this is a successful season for both drivers, and a successful season for Mercedes, and all of us will give our utmost to achieve that.
"Our main focus is on the 2024 season now,” he continued. “We've got two excellent drivers: we have Lewis in his final year at Mercedes, and George eager to go back in the car and perform.
“We need to put a car on the track that has more pace than last year's car, and we know how difficult it will be to compete not only with Red Bull but possibly the others as well."
Wolff said that with all the focus on Lewis this week, "something that has not been talked enough is George, who has the potential to be the next lead driver in the team.
“He's of the generation of Lando and Leclerc and some of the others. I couldn't wish for a [better] new team leader when Lewis leaves, no doubt about that.
“We've such a solid foundation, such a quick and talented and intelligent guy in the car, that we just need to take the right choice for the second driver, the second seat.”
Wolff gave no indication of what the timeframe was for finding Russell's new team mate, or who might be in contention for one of the most coveted seats in world motorsport.
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