Hamilton hold up due to cash, claims Horner

Lewis Hamilton’s failure to put pen-to-paper on a new Mercedes contract is due to the “grotesque” amount of money involved, rival team boss Christian Horner has claimed.

The Briton, 33, is yet to sign on the dotted line of a new deal estimated to be worth up to £40 million-a-year which is proving an unwelcome distraction for Mercedes.

Hamilton and Mercedes claimed at their Silverstone car launch back in February that his contract extension was likely to be rubberstamped before the season-opening race in Melbourne.

But more than three months later, they appear no closer to striking an announcement – with the driver stating this week that he is not in a rush to get the deal over the line.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff emphasised again in Monaco that he is entirely confident Hamilton will extend his stay beyond the end of this season.

“We haven’t set a fixed date where we want to announce, but I can tell you that I don’t see a reason why this shouldn’t be happening,” Wolff said yesterday.

“This is a work in progress and we see no hurry to pressurise each other into signing a document that will eventually anyway happen.”

However, Horner, whose Red Bull drivers set the pace in both practice sessions for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, believes cash is the contributing factor to the ongoing hold-up.

“I imagine that a delay can only involve money,” Horner, the Red Bull team principal, said.

“I should think it is such a grotesque amount of money that Toto’s talking about it is probably what’s making his and (Mercedes’ non-executive chairman) Niki Lauda’s eyes water at the moment.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes team arrived at the principality fearing they would be playing catch-up to both Ferrari and Red Bull - and so it proved in practice on Thursday.

While Daniel Ricciardo completed a practice double to cement Red Bull’s tag as the prerace favourites, Hamilton, who holds a 17-point championship lead, could manage only fourth.