It’s here! The big announcement has finally been made by Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton, their star driver, with whom they took months to negotiate a contract renewal that was bound to be on the cards for both parties has finally put pen to paper. Unfortunately for him, this finalized contract that runs for the next 2 years, comes at a great cost for him. He has to let go of the $25 million demand to give in to Toto Wolff’s brutal rejection and settle the deal.

The 7x champ had demanded an ambassadorial role with the Silver Arrows that would go on for 10 years after he retires from Formula 1. The sum that he urged for was a hefty $25 million. But weeks after that report made its way into the public domain, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff completely squashed it. He said, “We’re not talking about an ambassadorial role post his retirement, nor is that part of the contract negotiations.”

Despite being let down by a team that he has given all his time and effort to, he has now signed a contract extension with them which runs till the end of 2025. The Brackley outfit posted the big news on their ‘mercedesamgf1’ Instagram page, captioning it:  “Still. We. Rise. ✊ Lewis will continue his historic relationship with the Team! 🤩“

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Despite losing $25 million, there is still a lot of hope for him and the team. As per the team’s Chief Technical Officer, they might soon find themselves fighting against Red Bull and Max Verstappen for race wins.

Mercedes CTO Mike Elliott makes Mercedes’ ambitions soar as Lewis Hamilton touted to fight Max Verstappen for the World Championship

It used to be a delight to watch the 2 biggest names in F1, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battle it out for victory. Since Red Bull took over and Mercedes suffered a huge setback with the 2022 regulations, there has been no fight between them. However, on the Mercedes AMG F1 YouTube Channel, CTO Mike Elliott has set big goals for the Silver Arrows to achieve going forward.

Elliott said, “First of all, what we really want to do is winning races. We want to have a car that is competing right at the front, particularly with Max in the Red Bull. I think where we are is we’re battling for that second place.” Speaking specifically about the Dutch GP, he continued, “Our pace was pretty close to Alonso in the Aston Martin, pretty close to Norris’ McLaren. What we really want to do is get ourselves clearly out in front of the other cars and to chase down Max at the front.”

With a new contract for 2024 and a newfound sense of enthusiasm, can Hamilton beat Verstappen to clinch the record-breaking 8th Formula 1 World Championship?

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