With battle for championship heating up, Lewis Hamilton ends speculation over his future by signing two-year contract extension with Mercedes
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Pic/Getty Images
Lewis Hamilton will stay at Mercedes until at least 2020 after putting pen to paper on a fresh two-year deal, the team said on Thursday. The extension, announced in the build up to Mercedes' home German Grand Prix, comes after a protracted round of negotiations and puts to rest months of speculation surrounding the reigning world champion's future.
The 33-year-old, who would have been out of contract at the end of this season, had never really been expected to drive for a rival team with Mercedes having won both the drivers' and constructors' titles for the last four years in a row. But, there was talk he might walk away from the sport to pursue some of his other growing interests such as music. "This contract extension has basically been a formality since (Mercedes team boss) Toto (Wolff) and I sat down during the winter," said Hamilton in a statement. "So it's good to put pen to paper, announce it and then get on with business as usual."
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Hamilton left Mclaren, the British squad with whom he made his debut, for Mercedes in 2013 having already won the world championship. The move paid off handsomely with Mercedes dominating the turbo-hybrid era and Hamilton going on to win three further titles. The Briton, on 65 wins, is currently the second most successful driver in F1 history behind only Michael Schumacher. He also has a record 76 career pole positions. "We signed the final documents this week and didn't want to keep people waiting any longer," said Mercedes boss Wolff. "Mercedes has become Lewis' home in Formula One and his story is linked forever with the silver and green of Mercedes-AMG Petronas."
Mercedes didn't disclose the value of Hamilton's new contract but paddock talk pegged it at 40 million pounds a year, which will likely make him the sport's highest earner. The Briton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas is also out of contract at the end of the year, but Mercedes' statement made no mention of the Finn's future. With his future now sorted, Hamilton and Mercedes can switch their focus back to the racing on track where they are facing the stiffest competition the have had since the dawn of the turbo hybrid era in 2014. Mercedes have won only three of the ten races so far this year, each of those courtesy Hamilton, but have let several more slip due to strategy errors, unreliability, poor luck and in some cases simply not having the fastest package.
Rival Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, has won four races in his Ferrari and leads Hamilton by eight points in the overall standings. His most recent triumph came a fortnight ago in Hamilton's home grand prix at Silverstone, a race the Briton was favourite to win until an opening lap collision with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen dropped him to the back of the field. He still finished second, and this weekend, will be keen to deal Vettel a blow in the German's home race at the Hockenheim circuit. "Coming here, naturally I want to win," said Hamilton. "We haven't won enough races this year. I think we've done a really good job but we've definitely stumbled."
Vettel was born in the town of Heppenheim, only a half hour's drive away from Hockenheim, but he is yet to win at the track. He has only won the German Grand Prix once, in 2013 driving a Red Bull, when it was held at the Nurburgring. With the future of the race, which already features on the calendar only every alternate year, in doubt, Sunday could be the German's last chance of adding to that sole home win, at least for a time. "I think the fact that racing in Germany, I'm afraid that probably this is the last time for a while … and the fact that I am literally from here … means a lot to me," said Vettel. "And it would be great to have a good weekend."
65
No. of wins Lewis Hamilton has recorded, the second highest behind Michael Schumacher's 91
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