Lewis Hamilton has until preseason testing to sign new Mercedes deal

Mercedes workforce principal Toto Wolff has no doubt Lewis Hamilton will sign a deal extension holding him at System One champions Mercedes, declaring the two functions experienced right until the start of testing subsequent year to get the deal completed.

The 35-year-previous Hamilton, who wrapped up a record-equalling seventh environment championship title this season and became the most prosperous driver in F1 historical past, is out of deal at the end of this year.

Questions about a deal extension have dogged Wolff and Hamilton all season, with the Mercedes seat the only one particular on the F1 grid yet to be officially filled.

“If you refer to why haven’t we received a signed deal, the cause is easy — we always prioritized about finding this championship completed and not becoming distracted by from time to time complicated conversations…” Wolff, who led Mercedes to a record seventh straight title double this year, explained on Friday.

“But then COVID struck. It has delayed us a minor little bit but we are not anxious in finally finding it completed. Faster or afterwards it requires to be completed, the latest right before we go testing.”

Wolff was speaking immediately after Mercedes before on Friday introduced strategies for petrochemical huge Ineos to receive one particular-3rd of its System One workforce, sharing equal possession with parent organization Daimler AG and the Austrian.

As part of the deal, it was introduced the forty eight-year-previous Wolff, who has also faced concerns about his future, will remain on in his part as chief government and workforce principal for an additional 3 decades.

Hamilton, who enjoys a close rapport with Wolff, hailed the improvement and explained he would open up talks with him in excess of the subsequent handful of days.

The Briton, who earns an estimated forty million kilos ($fifty four.02 million) a year, experienced planned to phase up talks regarding his new deal in excess of F1’s Center Jap triple header, but tested constructive for COVID-19 and was pressured to skip a race.

“We haven’t started a dialogue,” Hamilton, who returned for the Abu Dhabi season finale very last Sunday, explained in a digital media meeting ahead of the governing FIA’s once-a-year prize supplying ceremony. “Toto and I program to do that in excess of the coming days.”

F1 testing is established to choose put at the beginning of March subsequent year, with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix scheduled for afterwards the similar thirty day period.