Hamilton says his new Mercedes deal may be a month away or more

Lewis Hamilton poured cold water on suggestions he is about to sign a new deal extending his stay at Mercedes in Formula 1.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said earlier this week a new contract with the seven-times champion could be signed within “days”. However speaking to media at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve yesterday Hamilton indicated his new contract is not imminent.

“I don’t really have a huge amount to say on the contractual side of things,” he said. “It’ll get done when it’s done.

“If that’s next week, if that’s in a month’s time, as long as it gets done I’m not really bothered.”

“I’ve seen Toto, we’ve talked several times, we have a great relationship but there’s nothing else to say at the moment,” he added.

Hamilton agreed his last contract extension in 2021, signing a two-year deal which runs to the end of this season. He said part of that arrangement included how he and the team are working to promote diversity and inclusion. This involves Hamilton’s Mission 44 charity, Mercedes’ Accelerate 25 initiative to make its team more diverse and Ignite, which was launched by the driver and the team to promote science, technology, engineering and maths subjects to under-represented groups.

“We’ve got an amazing group of people back at the factory who are really focused on ‘D&I’,” said Hamilton, “really, there’s been huge progress within our team since the first time we’ve had the serious conversations and the work that we’re doing with Accelerate 25 and Ignite, which is now within Mission 44. That’s really my role within Mission 44 and I think the team is always super-supportive.”

“Mission 44, I’m really proud of where we got it to,” he added. “We’re now funding, I think it’s 25 or 26 different organisations out there, so starting to really start to have impact.

“Hopefully, we’ll start to see a better, fresher chain coming through from with more diverse students.”

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