MOTOR RACING-Wolff ‘doing everything to make Hamilton stay with Mercedes

LONDON, CMC – Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he was “doing everything possible” to convince Lewis Hamilton to stay with the team beyond this year.

Hamilton has yet to sign a new deal with Mercedes, and his current contract, which he inked two years, will expire at the end of the year, and there have been talks over a fresh agreement for several months.

Nothing has been finalized at this stage. Wolff said in a recent interview on BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs that he expected the British race car driver with Grenadian heritage to play an essential part in reviving the team’s fortunes.

“Well, I very much hope so,” Wolff said when asked if he thought Hamilton would stay. “I’m doing everything I can to make him stay.

“There is no need to persuade him. He knows about all the goodness, and although we struggled with the car this year and last, he will be part of the team’s resurrection.”

In their more than ten years of working together, Wolff said he had developed a close personal relationship with the seven-time world champion.

“Lewis has become a friend, and over the years, we’ve gone through difficult spells and perfect moments,” he said. “We celebrated many championships and had discussions among ourselves, which were only sometimes accessible.

“But today, he is just a friend. He’s an ally, the best racing driver in the world, and I am very proud of being part of his career.”

The Mercedes boss added: “We have learned a lot. A pivotal moment was at the end of 2016 when we didn’t speak to each other for a while, so I invited him to come to my kitchen in Oxford and sit down and chat.

“The analogy I gave him is that I also have arguments with [my wife] Susie. Even if we shouted at each other, which didn’t happen a lot, even if we argued, there’s never thought of divorce, and that’s why I said to him, ‘I don’t want to divorce you, and neither do you. Because I want the best racing driver in our cars, and you want to have the best car’.”

Wolff said he and Hamilton concluded that they can have conflict and create an atmosphere where they can be brutally honest, but they agree to disagree and can move on.

It has been reported that Hamilton is demanding a five-year deal worth more than 250 million pounds sterling to remain at Mercedes, a contract enabling him to continue with the team until his 43rd birthday.

After a run of dominance at the tail end of the 2010s, Hamilton has been unable to keep up with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands in recent years.

The Dutch driver has emerged victorious in the last eight Grand Prix and holds a commanding 125-point lead at the top of the driver’s standings, with teammate Sergio Perez the only other driver to have won a race this season.