“Age plays no role” - Are Mercedes willing to pay Lewis Hamilton more in new F1 deal?
Hamilton’s current contract runs out at the end of F1 2023, although the s⛦even-time champion has reiterated his desire to remain in F1 over the next couple of years.
At 38, Hamilton is the second-oldest driver on the grid behind 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso, with Mercedes set to embark on his 17tꦿh season in F1.
Despite his age, Hamilton remains close to the peak of his powers, even though he e🅠nded 2022 without a victory or pole position.
Speaking after the launch of Mercedes’ 2023 challenger - the W14𝄹 - Wolff was asked whether the team would be willing to reward Hamilton with a more lucra🅷tive deal even though he was in the twilight years of his career.
“I think the age, 38, plays no role for this next contract,” Wolff told media including ltxcn.top. “If you look at how well athletes, top athꦰletes, have pushed the boundaries. I’m thinking about Tom Brady, 44/45, he’s on the pitch throwing a ball and being tackled, so the age plays no rol꧒e.
“In terms of the contractual situation, I think we’ve always found good solutions that reflect his value for the team and the 🌞spꦛort, and on the other side Mercedes is the place he wants to be.
These things have never been a contentious point. You mentioned dragging on, nothing is dragging on, the alignment is great, and like in the years before I think 𝕴it caused more hysteria with you that we didn’t announce anything but within us it was no problem to sort things out during the♑ winter before actually going racing because it was always clear we were going to do that.
“It’s almost like not li🔯ke a first priority, sitting down, as this is going to be a journey that will continue.”
Wolff refused to give a timeframe about when an🍒 agreement would be reached with Hamilton.
“I think as I said before we have done a few of these contracts in the past and they change little from iteration to iteration so it’s not usually complex, apart from the obvious ter⛎ms,” Wolff added.
“But no, we’ve had a first chat, but I don’t want to commit toꦿ any timeline as it’s not important for us or him at this stage, it runs a full year, and we’re going to find the right time.”
Mercedes endured their worst campaign in 11 years in 2022, finishing third in the constructors’ championship with just one victory and pole position courtesy of168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: George Russell.
Even though Mercedes struggled relative to recent years, Wolff insists that Hamilton𝐆 remains “very positive” and “motivated” to get back to ti🍨tle-winning ways.
“How he appears to me is in great form, very positive, motivated, energised, maybe the best so far I’ve seen in those 10 years after the winter,” Wolff explained. “He knows what he has win the team, we won eight constructor titles in a row, and I’m not saying anything you do🎃n𝐆’t know, we got it wrong last year.
“The resour✅ce, the capability is there, we just need to continue to develop like we’ve done last seas💯on, so I don’t think it plays in Lewis’ mind any doubt that the team can perform. We will. Eventually.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s co༒ntroversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
