BEVERLY HILLS, February 06, (THEWILL) – A breakthrough is on the horizon in the long-running episodic contract negotiations between Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team and their record-setting British race driver Sir Lewis Hamilton. After the introduction and acceptance of a curious Max Verstappen clause, both parties are reportedly closer to an agreement than they have ever been before over a new contract for the 2021 season.
Hamilton’s previous deal expired at the end of last season and, as covered by THEWILL, contract negotiations have stalled due to a series of factors such as disagreements in duration of the contract, the over-the-top demands included in Hamilton’s favour, the sum of the deal and Hamilton’s intention to earn from the returns the company makes.
The failure to reach a mutually agreeable deal has seen the driver’s seat at the Mercedes AMG F1 W11 Power+ stay empty as negotiations have dragged into February and become a full-blown saga. Now, the details of the protracted discussions that are bringing about this breakthrough are slowly coming to light for fanbase consumption.
A clause that relates to another race driver, Max Emilian Verstappen, is one such detail. Verstappen is a Belgian-Dutch racing driver currently competing in Formula One, under the Dutch flag, with Red Bull Racing. The curious clause which has been labelled the ‘Max Verstappen Clause’ will allow Hamilton to pick his team-mates.
The 36-year-old Hamilton has been with the Mercedes racing unit for seven years. In that time span, the knighted driver has had two team-mates: Nico Rosberg, with whom he frequently argued, especially during Rosberg’s final world championship year in 2016, and now Valtteri Bottas, who signed a one-year deal midway through last season to extend his stay with Mercedes through the 2021 circuit.
Part of the changes to the deal that is near complete, according to F1 Insider via GP Blog, is Hamilton’s agreeing to sign a one-year deal with Mercedes with an option for another year. This is a step-down from the four-year deal Hamilton proposed.
But, the deal includes a £40million salary, which is what he has been earning, and also includes two personal sponsorship placings on his helmet and overall
Hamilton had been reportedly asking for a share of Mercedes’ TV rights and that request was a sticking point in the contract negotiations, forcing it to stall for so long. To cushion the loss of that, it is being reported that Hamilton was granted a veto clause concerning who his teammate will be beyond the 2021 season.
The reason it has Verstappen’s name is that the possibility exists for the Brit to essentially select the Belgian-Dutch driver as his team-mate. It will please Mercedes to try and get Verstappen because team principal Toto Wolff remains a huge admirer of Verstappen. It helps that this will not be the first time the young Dutchman has been linked with a move to Mercedes to succeed or partner Hamilton.
The news of a near closure to the Hamilton contract imbroglio is encouraging for the 2021 circuit and, when he signs it, every seat for the season in every team will have a driver, completing the readiness for preseason ahead of the first Grand Prix.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
