Despite plenty of teasing by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the Spanish Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft has confirmed that the Silver Arrows won’t be announcing a new contract for Lewis Hamilton this weekend at the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix.
Both Wolff and Hamilton gave indicators in Barcelona that a deal could be announced ahead of this weekend’s action at the Circuit de Gilles-Villeneuve, a track the Briton has claimed victory at seven times.
Hamilton revealed at the Spanish GP that he had a meeting scheduled with Wolff for the day after the event, where he claimed second place.
Wolff also claimed that it was just a matter of “days” until an extension of Hamilton’s contract would be announced.
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However, ahead of this weekend in Montreal, Hamilton has revealed that he “never” met up with Wolff, with their being no updates in regard to his contract extension.
“We’ve never hooked up,” Hamilton revealed, as reported by The Mirror.
“I’ve seen Toto, we’ve talked several times,” Hamilton added. “Yeah. Nothing else real to really add to it.”
Whilst Croft wasn’t able to find out if the duo had held a contract negotiations meeting, he did ponder whether Hamilton and Wolff had spoken in New York, where they both attended a Forbes event.
What Croft was able to discover and confirm though, was that no announcement regarding a new deal for the seven-time World Champion would be made this weekend.
“As far as I understand it, and I’ve gone and done my chats this morning, nothing this week for Lewis Hamilton and the contract announcement,” Croft told Sky Sports.
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“I know we had some words of teasing from Toto Wolff at the start of the week. Both Lewis and Toto were together in New York, where they may or may not have had a contract chat or two.
“But Lewis made it clear the last time he spoke publicly about it that it was his management team that were sorting out the contract negotiations. But as far as I’m aware, the Mercedes team aren’t preparing a press release. Nothing is on standby to go out this weekend.
“A Lewis contract, which is more likely to be two years with an option maybe for an extra year on top of that, is not going to be announced this weekend. Lewis is more concentrated on trying to add to that wonderful record here in Montreal of seven wins and six poles.”