seanseidman

Wow $52m per year

UPDATE 3-Motor racing-Bumper payday for Hamilton with new Mercedes deal
Reuters1:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time Jul 19, 2018 * Hamilton signs two-year extension to end of 2020
* Four-times world champion still hungry for success
* Announcement likely to seal other driver decisions
* Bottas's confident of staying also

(Adds fresh Hamilton quotes, Vettel reaction)
By Alan Baldwin
HOCKENHEIM, Germany, July 19 (Reuters) - Four-times Formula
One world champion Lewis Hamilton ended months of speculation
about his future on Thursday by signing a new deal keeping him
at Mercedes until the end of 2020.
No financial details were given but British media reports
suggested the deal could be worth up to 40 million pounds ($52
million) a year and was likely to make Hamilton the sport's top
earner.
The 33-year-old Briton would have been out of contract at
the end of the season and the protracted negotiations have been
an ongoing saga.
Hamilton also revealed to reporters at the German Grand Prix
that another, unnamed, team had made an approach to which he
'didn't give any air'.
"You can make whatever assumption you want," he added, when
asked whether it was Ferrari.
The deal, finally signed this week according to team boss
Toto Wolff in a statement, means the top three teams now have a
leading driver under contract for the next two years.
There was no mention of Hamilton's current team mate
Valtteri Bottas, whose place has yet to be confirmed, but the
Finn told reporters separately that talks were moving forward
and he expected some good news soon. [See Story]
"We started with the discussions at the beginning of the
year, and then a few months later, and for a couple of days.
Then I put it off as it was too stressful," said Hamilton, who
conducted his own negotiations.
"I just kept delaying it. I had a contract in place so I
didn’t feel like I had to rush."
Hamilton has been part of the Mercedes "family" since he was
in karting and secured backing from the German manufacturer and
McLaren.
"I have never been happier inside a team than I am right
now," he said. "I'm very confident that Mercedes is the right
place to be over the coming years."

LINGERING DOUBTS
Mercedes have won both the drivers' and constructors' titles
for the past four years but, despite having the hottest seats in
the sport, there had been lingering doubts about Hamilton's
intentions.
Former team mate Nico Rosberg stunned the team in 2016 when
he won the title and then announced his retirement only days
later.
Hamilton, who won his first title with McLaren in 2008,
enjoys a celebrity lifestyle with plenty of interests -- mainly
in music and fashion -- outside of Formula One.
He acknowledged as much when asked whether the new contract
would be his last.
"Maybe in two years my life will be completely different and
I will want completely different things to what I want now so I
couldn’t tell you," said the man who has won 65 grands prix and
taken a record 76 career pole positions from 218 races.
"I still feel pretty great. I wasn’t expecting to feel as
excited as I am now in this signing to extend."
Hamilton is eight points adrift of Ferrari's Sebastian
Vettel, also a four-times world champion, at the halfway point
in the season.
The German greeted the news that Hamilton would remain a
rival for two more years with some indifference.
"Well, congrats. I don’t know why it took so long," he said.
"I think it was pretty clear.
"I have my place and my mission and what I want to achieve
and in all honesty, that’s all that matters."
($1 = 0.7691 pounds)

CosmosMpower

Overpriced, they could put a less talented driver in the car and get similar results. No need to pay him 12MM a year more than Vettel and 4X more than Bottas.

Mike in Chi

Does the new contract require him to do interviews in Parc Ferme?

multi21

Unless he's developing the engine or working in the wind tunnel to make the car more slippery in addition to driving the best car on the grid 5 years running, there's NO WAY he's worth close to what they're paying him.

Let's play a new game. Let's start with the drivers on the grid that CANNOT win in the Mercedes. I'll go first: Lance Stroll. Your turn.

Manifold

seanseidman

Let's play a new game. Let's start with the drivers on the grid that CANNOT win in the Mercedes. I'll go first: Lance Stroll. Your turn.[/QUOTE]

Sirotkin, Ericsson

LuigiVampa

To negotiate that much you have to have something to negotiate with? Where was Hammy going to go if Merc didn't give him a seat? Ferrari? RB? That wasn't going to work.

Accordingly, I don't understand why he got so much money.

Manifold

Look at it from Mercedes' standpoint. Who could they replace Hamilton with, and be confident that the guy would do just as well as Hamilton? There are numerous guys we can imagine could do as well as Hamilton, but few of them have the track record of F1-level results that Hamilton has. Look at what Alonso gets paid to drive a car that can't win:

https://www.totalsportek.com/f1/form...ries-revealed/

LuigiVampa

I agree with you, but if Hammy said no to Merc's offer where would he go? If Merc offered him $45M instead of $50M would have have walked, and if so, to where?

Manifold

My guess is that Hammy knew Mercedes was his only good option, and Mercedes knew it too, but he was still able to squeeze them for more money based on his track record, the amount of money Mercedes had to work with, what Vettel and Alonso were getting paid, etc. In other words, he may have argued that $52M is 'fair', all things considered.

multi21

Manifold

I'd love to see Alonso in the Merc, and would predict good results. But looking at it from Merc's perspective, sticking with Hammy is probably the rational decision - he's likely to continue to do well, and if he doesn't, no one would fault them for having stuck with him and paying him that salary. OTOH, if they went with Alonso and somehow he didn't do well, everyone would be saying "WTF did you replace Hamilton with Alonso?!" And I doubt they'd get much of a discount by going with Alonso compared to Hamilton, and the discount would be a small amount compared to the team budget.

sbelles

Just what the world needs. Another rich *******.

multi21

Manifold

Yes, good point, 13% isn't trivial.