Lewis Hamilton future 360: What’s going on with his Mercedes contract extension?

Lewis Hamilton is out of contract at the end of the season

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes future remains unclear with a contract extension still unsigned as Formula 1 enters the second half of its four-week break.

Hamilton’s present deal expires at the end of the year and while the 38-year-old and team boss Toto Wolff suggested during the off-season that an extension would be somewhat of a formality, the seven-time world champion currently remains set to become a free agent.

Speculation over Hamilton’s future has increased following another underwhelming start to the season for Mercedes, with the former champions already 67 points behind Red Bull and third in the standings while Hamilton is 31 points behind reigning two-time champion Max Verstappen.

So what does the future hold for Hamilton?

Hamilton: I’ll stay as long as I can contribute

At least publicly, Hamilton has remained keen to play down suggestions he could bring his long-standing association with the Silver Arrows to an end.

Hamilton has been affiliated to Mercedes since he was 13, they were his engine providers during his six seasons at McLaren and he is now in his 11th season racing for the works team.

At the Saudi Arabian GP Hamilton said he had “no plan” to leave and ahead of claiming his first podium of the season at the Australian GP, the Briton said he felt “amazing” about his future with the team.

“I’ve got some amazing allies. I’ve got great relationships here,” he told reporters.

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Highlights of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Circuit.

“I think, for me personally, just as long as I can continue to help the team, as long as I can continue to help drive the team forwards and really contribute, then that’s why I want to stay.

“If there’s ever going to be a point where I feel like I’m not able to do that, then it’s time for a youngster to come in to take my seat. But I’m still pretty young, in pretty decent shape.”

Indeed, the 38-year-old said he wanted to remain linked with Mercedes for the rest of his life.

“I continue to feel very much at home. It’s family. I see myself being with Mercedes till my last days, to be honest,” he said.

“If you look at the legends, Sir Stirling Moss was with Mercedes till the end of days.

“So, that’s been the dream for me to one day have that… well I have that, so I mean just continue on with that and continue to build with the brand.”

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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton says his P2 finish in Australia is a great result and gives the team hope as they look to catch up with Red Bull.

Wolff: No Plan B on Hamilton

Mercedes boss Wolff also remains confident Hamilton will still be with the team for at least 2024.

The Austrian conceded in the wake of Mercedes’ poor opening race in Bahrain that Hamilton might have to look at joining another team “in a year or two” if they could not reverse their fortunes and produce a car Hamilton could fight for an eighth world championship with.

Wolff is not yet considering alternative drivers to replace Hamilton and does not expect the Briton to make a late decision on his F1 future.

“I don’t want to engage in discussions with other drivers, because I’m happy with the ones that are in the team, that’s for sure. At the moment, there is no Plan B. It’s Lewis,” he told Motorsport.com.

“I think that he would tell us early enough. I don’t think that Lewis would say: ‘I can’t do this any more. I’m out of here tomorrow’.

“He would always feel the responsibility for the team. He wouldn’t leave the team alone. Drivers can always take decisions [like that], but he wouldn’t let us down.”

When has Hamilton signed previous extensions?

Hamilton’s current Mercedes contract is his fifth with the team since joining in 2013 and previous extension talks have dragged on until midway through the season – and even at one point left him out of contract.

During the 2020 season, Hamilton failed to agree a new deal before his contract expired that year, though he went on to sign a one-year deal in February 2021. That evolved into his present contract in July 2021 when Hamilton signed a two-year deal.

With the exception of his February 2021 deal, all of Hamilton’s previous contract extensions with Mercedes have been announced at Grand Prix weekends – in Monaco, Hockenheim and Austria.

Does Hamilton have options elsewhere?

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner rules out a move to his team for Lewis Hamilton, saying he can’t see how they would accommodate the seven-time world champion.

In short, not really – and certainly not at a team that could offer him a car in 2024 to deliver the eighth world championship he craves.

Red Bull are once again proving to be the team to beat in F1’s new regulations, but Verstappen is contracted until at least 2028 while Sergio Perez signed a contract last year through to the end of next season.

Team principal Christian Horner told Sky News last month that he “can’t see where we would be able to accommodate Lewis” when asked about the proposition of Hamilton making a shock move to the reigning constructors’ champions.

Hamilton has long been linked with a move to Ferrari during his career, but the Scuderia have both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz contracted for 2024.

Ferrari also have their own issues ongoing and have made a worse start to the 2023 season than Mercedes have.

And while Aston Martin have joined the battle at the front and are also an engine customer of Mercedes, Fernando Alonso is signed until the end of next year and the possibility of Lance Stroll being dropped to make way for Hamilton is surely non-existent.

“Lewis has got one more roll of the dice to join a team and make them world champions and get all the accolades that he wants, so I think that’s where he’s at, at the moment,” Martin Brundle said on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast in March.

“‘If in doubt, stay put’, I would have thought would be what he’s thinking. ‘If I can make this work, that’s my best solution, if not I may have to look elsewhere.'”

As it stands, the only openings on the grid for 2024 are at AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas.

Mercedes’ focus on improving W14?

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Karun Chandhok and Jenson Button analyse Lewis Hamilton’s seat position in his Mercedes.

While Hamilton’s new deal may have appeared a formality during the winter when Mercedes were full of optimism for what 2023 held, their poor start to the season has forced their focus onto radically improving their car.

After their disastrous season-opener which Wolff described as one of his worst days in racing, the Austrian said it was “too early” to discuss Mercedes’ 2024 driver line-up while everyone at the team looked for solutions to close the gap to Red Bull.

Hamilton’s criticism this season, suggesting Mercedes “hadn’t listened” to him over the design of the W14 and most recently revealing his struggles with the car’s seating position, has added to the uncertainty over his future.

Mercedes are using the four-week gap between races to try and improve the balance and driveability of the W14 and give their drivers more confidence in Baku next week.

If they can build from their more encouraging weekend last time out in Australia, then they may be able to give more attention to Hamilton’s future.

Russell evolving into Mercedes’ leader?

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Karun Chandhok takes a look at the comments between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, as the pair shared contrasting views following the Saudi Arabia GP.

The subplot to Hamilton’s next deal with Mercedes is that, should he re-sign, his next contract will likely coincide with the growth of George Russell into the team’s leader.

In his debut campaign with Mercedes last year, Russell became only the third team-mate to beat Hamilton over the course of a season after Jenson Button in 2011 and Nico Rosberg in 2016. Russell also claimed Mercedes’ only win and pole positions of the season as Hamilton endured a winless season for the first time in his F1 career.

Hamilton, and Wolff, repeatedly suggested throughout 2022 that his willingness to experiment with alternate setups on their troublesome W13 car was the reason he lost ground to Russell.

Russell leads Hamilton 3-0 in qualifying head-to-head so far in 2023, prompting 1996 world champion Damon Hill to ponder if Hamilton is beginning to lose his raw speed with age. Hamilton holds a 2-1 advantage in race results after Russell’s retirement in Melbourne.

“George is super quick and is revelling in the early part of his career,” Hill told the F1 Nation Podcast.

“I don’t know if Lewis has acknowledged that he can’t match that. I’m sure he will do, eventually. It’s possible that that instinctive, unconscious speed is starting to leave him.”

There have also been the first murmurings of disagreement between the pair, with Russell rejecting Hamilton’s assertions that the 25-year-old’s performance in Saudi Arabia was down to luck.

That relationship will be fascinating to watch over the remainder of the season, and could possibly play a part in Hamilton’s final decision.

The Formula 1 season resumes with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from April 28-30, with the first Sprint weekend of 2023 shown in full live on Sky Sports F1. Watch Saturday’s Sprint at 2:30pm and Sunday’s race at 12pm. Get Sky Sports