Damon Hill sheds light on “board meetings” to decide on Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes contract
Hamilton again insisted prior to this weekend’s F1 British Grand Prix 🉐at Silverstone that the delay to signing a new contract is nothing to do with money disputes.
Yet, with his deal expiring at the end of this sea🌺son, there is still nothing in writing to tie Hamilton to Mercedes for the long-term.
“෴As I underst💎and it, the contract won’t just be a racing contract – it will be a full Mercedes ambassadorial contract,” ex-F1 champion Hill told .
“That requires a different board to sign off on it, can’t just be signed off by Toto. Th✃ere’ll be some board meetings in Gꦉermany.”
Mercedes F1 is owned by three parties - Toto Wolff owns a third, Sir Jim Ratclif♎fe’s INEOS own a third, and Daimler (who also own Mercedes-ꦗBenz) own a third.
The delay in Hamilton🌊’s contract renewal has heigh🅷tened speculation that he could jump ship.
“Any driver wh✅o doesn’t know what the options are is missing a𝓀n opportunity,” Hill said.
“But would he really go to Ferrari? From a strategic point of view, it would be a huge risk toꦡ go to Ferrari.
“Everyon🦄e would love to be in red and win, see what happened with Nigel [Mansell💃].
“It’s a romance really but you’ve got to be cold-blood🐼ed about it.
“He’s not going to go to Red Bull either.”
The previously reported that Ham꧒ilton’s wish for a 10-year deal - that went beyond his F1 career - worth a total of £200m is the reason that a deal hasn’t yet been struck.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everyth𒅌ing from American sports, to football, to F1.
