Lewis Hamilton is hopeful contract talks with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff on Monday will finally conclude with him signing a new deal for 2024.
Hamilton has confirmed that he and Wolff have already held “so many meetings” with regard to resolving his future.
Mercedes’ performance this season was a cause for concern inside the team, prompting a major rethink of the concept of the W14 that culminated in a raft of upgrades being delivered on the car for last weekend’s Monaco GP.
Around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, Hamilton and team-mate George Russell delivered Mercedes’ best result of the year as they finished second and third behind the currently unbeatable Max Verstappen in the Spanish GP.
Whilst the upside is that Mercedes may now possess the second quickest car on the grid, the downside is that the gap to Red Bull – and Verstappen, in particular – is yawning as Hamilton finished 24 seconds adrift of the Dutch driver.
Despite that, and all the recent speculation about a potential switch to Ferrari, it appears Hamilton is set to nail his colours to the Mercedes mast for what would be a 12th consecutive season.
Asked simply whether he would be at Mercedes next year to drive a car that had again elevated him back onto the podium, he replied: “I haven’t signed anything yet, but I think we’re thinking of meeting with Toto tomorrow, so hopefully we can get something done.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, Wolff effectively underlined Hamilton’s words by stating that he and the seven-time F1 champion “just need to get time and to sit over a coffee. It’s going to take half an hour.”
Hamilton later insisted that his remarks over a meeting tomorrow were “not a subtle hint”.
As to whether finalising his future would allow him to focus on pushing the team forward, he added: “You can see today my results, my performance is not affected by that.
“It’s always something that’s at the back of your mind, so once that’s done then you’re able to focus more and think about the future.
“But as I said, I’m working as hard as I can with this team and I see so much strength within the team.
“I think they’re still so hungry, and the podium today was really, really special, to be able to see the excitement in all the people I’ve worked with in such a long time.
“And when we go back right now, there’ll be great energy within the office.
“But these guys, they’ll take two seconds to enjoy themselves and be happy and then they’ll be back down into the books and trying to figure out how we can win the next race.
“That’s what I love about them.”
Discussion about this post