Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2020

Hamilton: Reports about salary demands are “made up”

2020 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton has criticised reports claiming he is seeking a salary rise from Mercedes if he is to remain at the team beyond the end of this season.

The six-times world champion insisted he has not begun talks over his contract with team principal Toto Wolff.

Hamilton did not specify which reports he was referring to in a post on social media this morning. “The media keep writing about [my] contract and making demands but I haven’t even spoken with Toto about it yet,” he wrote.

“No demands, the conversation hasn’t even begun. So please stop making shit up.”

A report in the Daily Mail earlier this week claimed Hamilton is seeking a rise in his salary to $50m (£40m).

Yesterday Wolff indicated he has been in discussion with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, both of which are out of contract at the end of the year.

“Simply based on the fact that we haven’t seen each other a lot we have been keeping the discussion up,” he said. “We are in a position of trust with both of the drivers, which you could say that in Formula 1 it doesn’t mean a lot, but it does in our team and I guess that we will do the next steps soon.

“But I don’t want to commit to any timing because I don’t want to answer questions every single race weekend why the contracts are not done. There’s no urgency in the matter. All of us want to do it and when the time is right we will announce it.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Hamilton: Reports about salary demands are “made up””

  1. Barbara Steisand effect.
    Let’s look up those articles and share our opinions.

    1. i was talking going to talk about the fact that every time Lewis signs a new contract this story comes out. copy paste.

      1. To be fair – every time he signs with them, it is for a higher amount of money…

  2. The only thing that upsets me about this is that £40M is only $50M these days. I remember when it was $60M and the pound was stronger. Sigh.

  3. Hamilton: “We’re not talking about it.”
    Wolff: “Yeah, of course we are talking about it.”

    1. Martin Duquemin
      4th July 2020, 10:46

      The man is a walking talking legend who still delivers at the sharpest end, if I were Mercedes CEO i’d pay him £40 million without blinking!!!

    2. Hamilton said they haven’t started talking about salary, not his future with Mercedes. Learn to read!

  4. I said “it”… I didn’t say “salary”.
    2nd paragraph and 4th paragraph. Learn to read!

  5. RocketTankski
    4th July 2020, 12:52

    I want double the celery! and hold the cheese.

  6. Quoting Daily Fail’s chief F1 correspondent Jonathan McEvoy (once banned for a few years from Mercedes) is the same as asking the Sun’s Kelvin MacKenzie for the latest inside news on Liverpool FC

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