Hamilton expects new deal with Mercedes for Christmas



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Lewis Hamilton hopes to sign a new contract with Mercedes by Christmas.

The seven-time Formula 1 champion is in the unusual position of ending a season with no other deal for the next few years.

The talks have been suspended for numerous reasons: lockdown, the 17 races packed into 23 weekends, ensuring the titles were closed, and eventually Hamilton is sidelined by Covid-19.

Although Christmas is fast approaching, the two men now have a clear window of opportunity ahead of them to finalize the terms, and the 35-year-old hopes to write on paper in the next few days.

“Hopefully for the next two weeks,” Hamilton said when asked when he would sit down with Wolff and then announce the new deal.

“I’d love … we’d love to do it before Christmas I think. I plan to be here next year, I want to be here next year.

“As a team, we have more to do together and more to accomplish both in sport and outside of sport.

“So I hope that we can start this week, the discussions and hopefully finish before Christmas.”

With Hamilton effectively a free agent at the end of the year, Wolff was questioned about what will happen next.

“That’s going to happen,” Wolff responded regarding the talks. “There is no reason why it shouldn’t happen. We will have this conversation.

“We are late. We always said we would do it after winning the title and then the virus delayed us another 10 days, two weeks, so we have to sit down, maybe virtually, maybe live. ”

Wolff’s future is also the subject of much speculation, with rumors persisting throughout the year that he will be leaving his job as team principal for a different position at the automaker.

Asked about this, the Austrian again did not reveal anything, simply answering: “Look at this space.”



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