F1 INSIDER

PICTURES

01 HAMILTON RENEWS CONTRACT

World champion signs on for two more years

02 MIXED RESPONSE TO TRIAL OF NEW SATURDAY FORMAT

03 MORE RACES UNDER COVID THREAT

HAMILTON EXTENDS TO 2023

01 Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes which will keep him in Formula 1 until the end of the 2023 season. The timing of the deal – announced at the beginning of July – is significant, since it is the earliest Hamilton has committed since 2015, when a three-year deal taking him to the end of 2018 was announced in the run-up to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

By contrast, Hamilton ended last season out-of-contract and only in February reached a one-year deal with Mercedes covering 2021. Negotiations for that had been held up by the practicalities of meeting face-to-face during the pandemic, the ultra-compressed nature of the 2020 season, and then both Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff contracting Covid. This time they began talking in May.

Early completion is an indicator of how seriously both team and driver are approaching the current, understands that while Hamilton took a pay cut this season owing to the effect of the pandemic on Mercedes’ willingness to spend, his new contract restores his salary to around £40m per year.