Mercedes is my home, says Hamilton
MONACO: Double Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has agreed a new three-year contract that will keep him at Mercedes until the end of 2018, the team announced on Wednesday.
Although no financial details were given, media reports have suggested the Briton is in line for a bumper pay packet amounting to more than $40 million a year.
“Mercedes is my home and I couldn’t be happier to be staying here for another three years,” the 30-year-old Briton said in a statement that ended any talk of a move to rivals Ferrari in the near future.
Hamilton, who has a 20-point lead over teammate Nico Rosberg in the current championship after five races, is already one of the highest earners in the sport along with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
Rosberg, who is chasing a third successive Monaco Grand Prix win this weekend, agreed his own multi-year contract extension last July.
Hamilton’s new deal ends months of uncertainty about the driver’s future, with speculation swirling since the middle of last year and increasing despite repeated assurances that all was on track.
The champion has dispensed with the services of a manager and has been conducting much of the negotiations, and reading through contracts, himself.
The Briton, who won his first title with McLaren in 2008, has been backed by Mercedes since his teenage years and all of his 36 grand prix wins have been with the German manufacturer’s engines.
Fifteen of those victories, including 11 last year, have been for the Mercedes works team. “Mercedes-Benz began supporting me in 1998 so I am very proud that this contract means I will mark 20 years with Mercedes in 2018,” he said.
Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said continuity was a key factor in delivering success. “Lewis enjoyed an historic World Championship season with Mercedes-Benz last year and it was a priority for this season to renew his contract for the next term,” said the Austrian.
“We have taken the right amount of time with the process and not rushed ourselves. The result is a strong agreement that will enhance Lewis’ association with the Mercedes-Benz brand, and that recognises and respects the market value of Lewis and of Mercedes in Formula One.”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s race, Hamilton hopes to be third time lucky and take revenge on Rosberg by denying his Mercedes teammate a hattrick of wins in Formula One’s most glamorous race.
Last year, the pair were barely on speaking terms after a qualifying controversy threw their relationship into the deep freeze.
The frostiness between the title rivals has since thawed but neither will be giving an inch in what constitutes a home race for both and looks set to give Mercedes a third win in a row regardless.
Rosberg is back on form, setting up his triple bid by winning in Spain two weeks ago and checking world champion Hamilton’s dominant start to the season.
While the German will want to continue the momentum, Hamilton is just as hungry to reassert himself and add to his 20 point lead in the standings with a long-overdue triumph in a favourite race.
“The last two years I have had the car to win,” Hamilton said. “The first year I struggled with it. Last year, I had the pace but other things were up against me and this year, hopefully will be different... third time lucky.”
Pole position will be as crucial as ever on a tight and twisty circuit where overtaking is almost impossible and Hamilton, second a year ago, will be warier this time.
Last year’s drama saw Rosberg take pole after he set the fastest lap and then made a mis- take on the entry to Mirabeau, going down the escape road and bringing out yellow warning flags just as Hamilton was about to go faster.
“I should have known that was going to happen,” an angry Hamilton said afterwards, suggesting deliberate intent. This year, he will simply make sure he gets his fastest lap in first.
“I will have the choice to go ahead of him so I will make sure I do that,” said Hamilton, whose only Monaco win to date was with McLaren in 2008 on the way to his first title.
If Rosberg were to win again, he will become only the fourth driver after Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost to take three successive victories in the showcase race and the irony will not be lost on Hamilton.
Senna, who won five times in a row, was the Briton's boyhood idol whose three championship titles Hamilton can equal this year.
Ferrari, who have not won in Monaco since Michael Schumacher in 2001, should be Mercedes's closest rivals with Sebastian Vettel a winner with Red Bull in 2011 and Kimi Raikkonen with McLaren in 2005. – Reuters