Reuters/London
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton is ready to sign a new contract that, according to media reports, could net him more than $40mn a year.
“It should be done this week. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be,” the Mercedes driver told British reporters after finishing second in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
“Honestly, it’s 99.6 percent done. There’s no negotiating left. It’s just legal stuff.”
The BBC reported on Tuesday that the 30-year-old Briton, who has conducted his own negotiations with Mercedes, would earn about the same basic salary as in his first contract with the team he joined in 2013.
However other sources indicated the terms would be more lucrative, to reflect his success and status. With bonuses, depending on the number of race wins and retaining the championship, the BBC calculated the total amount would be “well over $40 million”—working out at more than $4,500 an hour or $75 a minute.
Hamilton, who won the first of his two titles with McLaren in 2008, is one of the three highest paid drivers in the sport with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso reckoned to earn at least what the Briton does.
He is out of contract at the end of this season and the saga of his negotiations has kept the media busy since last year, when the talks were put on hold for him to concentrate on the title battle.
Reports since then have regularly indicated that he was set to sign, Hamilton telling Sky Sports last week that he hoped to do so before the Malaysian Grand Prix, which came and went without an announcement.
The delays have triggered speculation that Hamilton could be considering a shock move to Ferrari as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen alongside four times champion Vettel but the driver has laughed off that idea.
*One word seemed to encapsulate Fernando Alonso’s Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.
The comment, posted on Twitter under a photograph of the sweaty Spaniard walking in his McLaren overalls past the Ferrari garage and the Italian team’s smiling mechanics, was simple: ‘Ouch’.
It was hard not to feel a twinge of pity for the double world champion, who left Ferrari for McLaren at the end of last year, as his former employers celebrated their first victory since 2013.
Formula One glamour team Ferrari are back in business while McLaren, with their new partners Honda, have gone backwards.
Alonso, who missed the first race of the season after a crash in testing, lasted just 21 laps before retiring due to cooling problems with the car’s energy recovery system. World champion Lewis Hamilton, who partnered Alonso at McLaren in 2007 and whose own move to Mercedes at the end of 2012 had commentators fearing he had made a mistake, felt for the Spaniard.
“I sat next to Sebastian (Vettel in the news conference) and thought to myself ‘What is Fernando thinking?,” he said after Alonso’s jubilant replacement had sprayed the winner’s champagne.
“I remember when I left McLaren and came here (Mercedes), we were better the next year. I had a good feeling then but he’s almost done the opposite of what I did. It could have been him today. It’s just strange how things turn out.”
Alonso was determined to stay positive. “Interesting days ahead!! Looking forward! Very happy!!,” he exclaimed on his Twitter feed on Monday. “It’s a very exciting challenge because we will grow up all together from the very bottom and when we arrive to a podium position, we will look at each other and say ‘this has been a very exciting trip.’”
