At the end of this season, Lewis Hamilton’s contract with Mercedes will come to an end and for the moment both parties have not reached an agreement for next year, but if we look at his statements, it can be said that the agreement is a matter of time.
Hamilton and Toto Wolff’s most successful period in F1 ran parallel. Between 2014 and 2021, the British driver won 6 of his 7 championships and the Mercedes team manager won no more and no less than eight consecutive titles. Throughout this process, the relationship between the two went beyond being a driver and team manager.
However, the landscape has changed a lot and currently Mercedes is not even close to fighting for victories, but Hamilton believes that 2023 will not be his last season with Mercedes. However, for that to happen, both parties have to sign a new contract.
Toto Wolff revealed that talking about the financial aspect of the deal was uncomfortable due to his close relationship with Lewis Hamilton, so to overcome that, he admitted that some financial matters he prefers to negotiate directly with Hamilton’s agent, Penny Thow.
Speaking to ESPNWolff said: “It’s extremely uncomfortable. Every three years we have this situation. It’s like negotiating financial terms with your best friend.your close friend.”
“I want the best for him, but in the position I’m in, I have to think about what’s best for the team. This It might be the first time in 10 or 11 years that we’ve been together and our goals have diverged.“.
“After all, it’s hard to talk about money with ‘your partner’. Penni helps us in that situation and keeps us in check. We’ve found a good working method for negotiating. We avoid talking to each other about money, but we both talk about it with Penni,” he explained.
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion driver agreed with his friend and team boss Wolff about how uncomfortable it is to discuss financial issues, adding that at no point in his career has he ever used a rival team to put pressure on his team. current team.
“No deal panic. We will do it, we are not under pressure and we are always sincere.”
“If Toto is talking to someone, he will tell me. In my entire career I have never gone to talk to anyone to see if I can get them to raise the offer; I’ve never played that and neither has he.”
“We’ve always been open, but ultimately, having such a close relationship makes it difficult sometimes to have discussions like that, because emotion comes into play and we have to be very careful when we get out of the circle, put the relationship aside, think about work and what is best for both of us“.
“But over the years we’ve managed to find that balance very well,” Hamilton concluded.
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