Hamilton is fourth in this year's driver rankings; Championship, almost 200 points behind Max Verstappen. Photo: GETTY IMAGES/Vince Mignotte
Lewis Hamilton has expressed his confidence that Mercedes will be able to compete with Red Bull over the next two years as he finally takes on a new two-year deal worth a lot of money. estimated at 100 million pounds.
The new contract, which puts Hamilton on par with two-time Red Bull world champion Max Verstappen, was announced at Monza on Thursday as part of the Mercedes double presentation, with teammate George Russell also confirming a contract until the end of 2025. This brings to an end one of the most harrowing sagas in sports.
Hamilton, who will be 40 by the time his new contract expires, insisted throughout the season that he was happy at Mercedes, saying repeatedly that it was only a matter of time before he signed.
But negotiations dragged on for several months, while both the parties agreed on finer details, including his salary and key provisions such as his sponsorship and PR commitments.< /p>
While he denied it had anything to do with the delay, Hamilton was also almost certainly waiting to see how Mercedes will react after they get off to a slow start for the second year in a row.
It's kind of the day of the announcement of the dual driver. 🤩
How are we all feeling right now, team? 😜 pic.twitter.com/F2M1CPG0oy
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1), August 31, 2023
Team Brackley was in contention for second place in the Constructors' Championship, starting the season with fourth or fifth fastest car.
Hamilton insisted he always believed, saying his biggest hesitation came in the winter of 2021/22, after he was stripped of his record-breaking eighth world title in Abu Dhabi.
“I definitely wanted to continue,” he said. “I mean, I think there are ups and downs in life. I think last year everyone [at Mercedes] was wondering if they wanted to continue. It's such a tough sport. But I think that thought quickly went away. I'm proud of how we handled it and although we didn't start this season the way we wanted, we are currently second in the league.»Now the question is how quickly Mercedes can return. to race victories and title contention.
This weekend at Monza, Verstappen is looking to score a record 10th consecutive race win as he approaches his third consecutive championship. Many believe that an entirely new set of rules will need to be introduced in 2026 for anyone to have a chance of catching it.
Hamilton said he didn't think so. “I am not working on next year thinking it will take another four years,” he said. «Deep down, I truly believe that if it's not next year, then in a year.»
He also denied that his decision to stay in the sport had anything to do with «revenge» or «redemption» after the 2021 controversy.
«I'm not really in favor of revenge,» he said. “This [Abu Dhabi] is in the past, and nothing can be done about the past. What we can do is work harder, be more precise and better. I sincerely believe that together with this team we can win more world championships and more races.”
It could happen sooner if those in power decide to somehow tie Red Bull back like Hamilton did, which is not surprising, it didn't sound particularly opposed.
«[When Mercedes dominated] we went through a lot of changes, that were put in place to slow us down, like banning our qualifying regime in 2021, or was it 2020,» he said. «On the one hand, it was [frustrating] as our engineers did an excellent job. But in terms «fans, of course they want to see closer races. We don't want any team to dominate for 10 years. None of us; teams, drivers, fans. We want close competition.»
Russell, whose deal is believed to be worth less than half of Hamilton's deal (around £20m a year), said the Hamilton contract extension was a «push» for everyone in the team. «He wouldn't have stayed if he hadn't thought that the team is capable of winning again,” said the 25-year-old. «It builds my confidence in the team.»
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