Hamilton set to finally sign Mercedes deal

It’s dragged on for months, but Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton is now set to sign a new deal with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are dominating Formula One at the present moment in time.

Victory in Bahrain saw Hamilton take his 14th Grand Prix victory since the Malaysian Grand Prix in March 2014.

To put that into context that is the same amount of race victories that former Formula One World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill and Jack Brabham celebrated in the 1960’s and 1970’s during their racing careers.

In modern day F1 it is just one less than 2009 title holder Jenson Button has achieved throughout his career.

9 of those race wins came in 11 races either side of Hamilton clinching the 2014 Formula One World Championship.

Hamilton already holds a 20 point gap over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and looks an odds on favourite to take a second consecutive title, emulating his idol Aryton Senna with three Formula One World Championships.

With 36 Grand Prix victories to-date he also looks set to surpass Senna’s win record of 41 later this season, to become the third most successful Formula One driver in history behind Alain Prost [51 Grand Prix victories] and Michael Schumacher [91 Grand Prix victories].

But the sub-plot for around a year has been no sign of a new contract for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes beyond 2015, with talks dragging on since last year, questions were asked whether Hamilton’s head had been turned by Ferrari? Or whether Hamilton had requested number one status at Mercedes.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff quickly denied the latter, whilst Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene this week ruled out the former.

There was talk of money being the stumbling block, with a rumour suggesting Hamilton wanted a £150million three-year-deal, against a rumour emphatically denied by Wolff.

And this week also denied by Hamilton.

‘That is not the case. It is utter bulls***, basically. All stories that have come out about money are generally bulls***.’

Bulls*** or not as Hamilton so eloquently put it a more modest basic salary of £20.9million-a-year was quoted by the BBC when it looked like the deal was initially close to fruition.

The basic salary of £20.9million-a-year also includes various bonuses which depending on the number of race victories and potential future Formula One championships could take his earnings to in-excess of £27million.

The deal would see Hamilton on parity with former two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren Honda and former four-time F1 title holder Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari.

Alonso is reportedly earning £27million-a-year at McLaren, whilst Vettel will earn £33.7million during his first season at Ferrari [his basic wage drops after the first season to £20.4million with potential bonuses boosting his earnings to around the £33.7million mark].

So if he’s not going to Ferrari, his status within the team is resolved and the financial side of the deal has been agreed why the delay?

Has it really been all down to the lawyers after Hamilton had represented himself during the negotiations after parting company with his XIX Entertainment management team last year?

Has the 30-year-old really just taken his time reading through the complex document? We’ll probably never know, but according to Hamilton there will be news ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

‘You’ll see it in Monaco – I will have some news for you in Monaco.’ he added.