Things are certainly looking up for seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, after back-to-back second-place finishes at the United States and Mexico City Grand Prix.
It’s been by far Hamilton’s toughest season at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, in fact, it’s been the Silver Arrows worst season of the hybrid era. The British driver was a ragdoll in the first part of the season, after often getting out of the W13 with spinal pain, something which became serious at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Hamilton required help after the race at the Baku City Circuit to get out of his car, following a torment of harsh porpoising.
The start of the year was so bad for the Stevenage-born driver that he was supposedly considering his options going forward, with multiple media outlets having linked the Brit to retirement. Fast forward to the end of the year, though, and any links to a potential retirement have been firmly diminished, with Hamilton set to sign a contract extension in the “next couple of months”.
The second half of the year has been considerably better for the thirty-seven year old, who has claimed a podium finish at seven of the last twelve races. After being beaten by team-mate George Russell for the majority of the first-half of the season, Hamilton has certainly been the better Mercedes driver since the Canadian Grand Prix, where his performances dramatically improved.
With Mercedes and Hamilton targeting a return to the top in 2023, Team Principal Toto Wolff confirmed in Mexico that contract extension talks will take place “over the winter”, once the season has concluded.
“We haven’t started having talks,” Wolff said, as per Motorsport.com.
“We want to definitely finish the season and then find some quiet time over the winter like we have done last time around, that literally started in the winter holidays and lasted over two months. We haven’t done that.
“But he’s much more than a driver to us now. Although we’re not talking about a career end, it’s also important to speak about his role as an ambassador for Mercedes and the many sponsors that we have, and the implication he can have in our wider audience.”
