Hamilton will sign Mercedes deal – Jordan
Lewis Hamilton will sign a new contract with Mercedes this week, former Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan has said.
Hamilton’s previous £40million-a-year deal with thesport’sall-conqueringteam expired on the final day of December.
And Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently indicated that a resolution is not forthcoming, admitting to arguing with his star driver on Zoom over the terms of his latest deal. But Jordan, who remains well-connected in the sport, said :“I believe Lewis will be signed within a week. I cannot see it going into February.
“Where do Mercedes go after Lewis? Of course, they can have the pick of the crop, but that is not the way Toto operates.
“He has increased his shareholding over the winter, brought in INEOS as a one-third shareholder, and he doesn’t want to be walking up and down the paddock with somebody new that he has to think about.
“He wants to be there with the man of the moment, he wants to be therewith the king of all kings in Formula One and that is Lewis Hamilton.”
Jordan ran his own F1 team for 14 years and believes Hamilton, 36, who has won six of his record-equalling seven world championships with Mercedes, should be granted a slice of the team’s television revenue.
Accounts published last autumn said the Silver Arrows enjoyedanear-quartershareof F1’s TV coverage, generating a cumulative advertising value equivalent to nearly £4billion for its commercial partners.
Hamilton, currently training in America, is due to open his championship defence in Bahrain on March 28.