Earlier this week, Sir Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 Team finally agreed a deal which will see them continue to race together in 2021.
It was previously reported that the seven-time World Champion’s salary demands and his preference for signing a multi-year deal were holding up the talks.
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Ultimately, Hamilton agreed a single-year extension with Mercedes – and Dutch racing driver Robert Doornbos believes the Silver Arrows “held their ground” in the negotiations.
“Both sides have had to compromise anyway,” Doornbos told the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com.
“I think Mercedes ultimately held their ground and Hamilton didn’t get everything he wanted.
“I think Hamilton wanted to sign for a longer period of time and had to compromise on that point.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has already offered an explanation as to why Hamilton and the Silver Arrows only agreed a one-year deal.
Namely, they “jointly” decided a single-year deal is preferable as it gives them an opportunity to see how the upcoming regulation changes might shake up the pecking order.
Wolff added that the fact they left the talks so late also contributed to this decision.
“We jointly agreed on a one-year deal,” Wolff said.
“First of all, there is a substantial regulation change in 2022. We also want to see how the world develops, and the company. Plus on the other side, it’s because we kept it very late.
“We wanted to discuss the contract at the end of the season between the Bahrain races and then obviously, Lewis didn’t feel well.
“And in the end, we started our conversation, just before Christmas. So it was important to get it done as soon as possible.
“And in that respect, we thought, ‘let’s postpone the discussion about 2022 and onwards to a later stage in 2021,’” the Austrian added.
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