By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
The cloudy future of Lewis Hamilton became has become slightly clearer.
The 33-year-old Brit is in the final year of his contract with Mercedes, but after being crowned champion three of the past four seasons some doubt has crept in about his career beyond 2018.
During an FIA press conference on Friday ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff, Team Principal of Mercedes, candidly addressed the situation.
“The contract we have been discussing before going into the winter holiday and then we kind of left it there to get away from Formula 1 and picked it up again in January,” said Wolff.
“These discussions are going in the right way and we finalizing the last topics and there is no reason to not think that is not going to happen soon. He is in a good frame of mind. I’ve seen him coming back strong from the winter.
Remarkably, with four championships to his credit, Hamilton sits third on the all-time list and tied with the likes of the legendary Alain Prost and current rival at Ferrai, Sebastian Vettel. However, scoring another title would put him tied with Juan Manuel Fangio for second all-time. Michael Schumacher sits alone at the top with seven championships.
For his part, Wolff denied any certainty on it playing a role on Hamilton’s current state of mind moving forward.
“In terms of the record, I think whether it plays a role I don’t know, but clearly with the four championships he is within a very good group of drivers,” said Wolff.
“Obviously, the next one is to be achieved, but I don’t think it’s a good omen to discuss it or think too much about it.
“It’s better to look at those records afterwards.”
