I’m not one to start rumors but it is a tad bit odd that Mercedes are suggesting their talks about Lewis Hamilton’s contract extension is put on hold until after they’ve won the driver’s title. Team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 that Lewis would like to focus on the title and wait until after they’ve won to start contract discussions.
“We’ve said many times, and he’s said, that we’d like to continue with Lewis for a much longer period and we’ve decided to delay the discussions about the contract until we have hopefully won the Drivers’ Championship,” Wolff said
“He wants to stay concentrated, we think that he needs to stay concentrated and not be diluted by legal or financial discussions, and once we have done that we’re going to sit down and hopefully extend it. This is his wish, it’s our wish, so I don’t see any contradictions at that stage.”
That’s fair enough but obviously big money is involved, contract length is an issue and a host of other issues. Lewis is leading the championship and seems to have Nikki Lauda as a very strong supporter. From the outside it seems that Nico Rosberg, who just extended his contract, has lost some of the luster he once had.
There are rumors placing Fernando Alonso at Mercedes in 2016 but Wolff says that no one is taking Lewis’s seat:
“Nobody’s going to take that seat away from him until he decides so.”
Perhaps Lewis is sizing up his prospect and while moving to Mercedes seems to be a decision that was perfectly timed, it does make you wonder if his potentially leaving might be ill-timed or could it be the perfect time to return to McLaren from whence he was born? Regardless, seems like an extension would be certainly in the works but the delay does have me wondering.
All very strange but that’s what keeps the rumor mill churning and all of us speculating on just where Lewis and Fernando might end up in 2015 and 2016.
Hat Tip: Sky Sports F1
