Mercedes believe their relationship with Lewis Hamilton can last "forever" if they continue to provide their star driver with a title-contending car.

Hamilton has won four of his five championships since moving to Mercedes from McLaren in 2012.

"As long as we provide a car that is competitive to win championships and he continues to drive like he does, this can be a relationship that goes forever," said team boss Toto Wolff.

Ferrari and Vettel vow to fight on

Hamilton signed a contract extension with Mercedes earlier this year which ties him to the Silver Arrows until the end of 2020.

But with the driver market potentially set for a major reshuffle for 2021 - both Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, for instance, are also currently tied to deals which expire in 2020 - talk of Hamilton moving to Ferrari has never entirely evaporated.

"At the moment, it's very very difficult to imagine, envisage myself anywhere else," said Hamilton in the wake of winning the title in Mexico.

"This is my family, this is where I grew up but I said the same thing when I was at McLaren. I think one of the reasons I wanted to move was to go somewhere else and see if you could do something special somewhere else. I knew I could but I needed to prove it to everyone else.

"Right now, I don't feel like I need to go and be in another team to win a title in another team but you can never say never."

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