Last month, amid mounting speculation about why Sir Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 Team are yet to ink a new deal for 2021, a source at the Silver Arrows told Formula1News.co.uk that reports that the seven-time World Champion might leave the team are “fake news.”
“Any suggestion that Lewis won’t be with us this year is simply fake news. Plain and simple,” the source told this publication.
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“There is no reason he and Valtteri won’t be driving our cars in 2021. You can consider it confirmed,” he added.
And now, the same source has told Formula1News.co.uk that Sir Lewis Hamilton’s future at Mercedes was “never in doubt” and a contract extension will be signed this month.
“Lewis’ future here was never in doubt. It’s just a question of time,” the source said on Tuesday.
“I’m confident it will be wrapped up and announced sometime in Feb.”
Last month, it was reported that Hamilton’s salary demands and his insistence on securing another multi-year deal instead of a single-year extension were holding up the negotiations.
However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff later said that Hamilton and the Silver Arrows aren’t far away from a “reasonable agreement.”
Wolff also reiterated that a deal will be agreed before pre-season testing in Bahrain at the very latest.
“Lewis is incredibly important, not only for our team but also for the Mercedes brand,” the Austrian said in late January.
“But the landscape is changing right now. We have a big regulation change next year and the cost cap that will hit us hard next year.
“These are all factors that have played a role in our discussions. Also, of course, looking at the future.
“And then it goes into detail and we don’t want to be put under pressure. It should be a reasonable agreement and we are not far away from that,” Wolff concluded.
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