The seventh crown: Lewis Hamilton celebrates the title with the Mercedes team, after winning the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix; the Briton renewed his contract for one season, with the challenge of becoming the greatest champion in the history of Formula 1 Source: Archive – Credit: Daimler AG
Details delayed the predictable end. The Mercedes announcement confirmed the suspicions and the most desired seat in Formula 1 will continue to be held by Lewis Hamilton, the active rider with the most titles and records. A one-year contract, a decision that appears strange but that is not whimsical: The Briton will have the opportunity to conquer the eighth crown in 2021 and break the record he shares with Michael Schumacher, although he will also delineate if the sporting and economic changes that will be presented next year seduce him to face a new adventure or whether to determine that the 36 years is the time to say goodbye to Big circus with the last bath of glory and multiple recognitions to face personal challenges and, surely, backed by the team with which he swept the tracks.
The 38 days without a contract at no time triggered a crisis between Hamilton and Mercedes: during that time the parties shared complicit messages on social networks. The Brackley factory will keep the color black on the cars and, in addition to supporting the fight against racism in 2020, it agreed to accompany its star driver in the continuation of the crusade with the launch of a charitable foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in sport. “I would change a seventh title in favor of more diversity,” Hamilton reflected, in August 2020, during an interview he conducted for F.1.
Now, in the statement for the signing of the new link, he said: “I am excited to start my ninth season with my Mercedes teammates. We achieved incredible things together and we look forward to taking our success even further, as we continue to seek ways to improve both on and off the track. [.] I am inspired by all that we can build together and I am looking forward to getting back on track. “On Tuesday March 2, Mercedes will discover the W12, the model with which Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will compete this season in F.1; from 12 to 14, the Great Circus will retrace the tests at the Bahrain circuit, where the 2021 calendar will begin on Sunday 28.
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff, the formula for Mercedes success; The driver won six titles with the Silver Arrows, while the team’s boss and now CEO made the team unbeatable since 2014 Credit: LAT Images / Daimler AG
Hamilton and Mercedes are a solid team on the track and that granite formation is taught in the plans they face together. “For us, the basis is a long-term commitment. We want to choose projects that have the greatest possible impact. Young people, students from a less favored environment must receive support to enter F.1 and work there”, Toto accompanied Wolff, the boss and CEO of Mercedes who owns 33% of the shares of Mercedes AMG F1, the same percentage as Daimler and Jim Ratcliffe, the richest man in Great Britain and president of Ineos, sponsor of the team since last year .
On the economic agreement of the contract multiple conjectures were woven. From the exorbitant figure of 70 million euros per year to 40,000,000 and the possibility of two free advertisements on Hamilton’s diver and helmet, as reported by the portal “f1-insider.com”. Also the collection of percentages on the money that Mercedes receives from Liberty Media and the gift of the Mercedes AMG Project One, the hybrid street car with F.1 technology, comments that Wolff denied. The Mercedes boss and CEO avoided unveiling numbers and also denied that Hamilton had a veto clause on any driver if he continues in the team from 2022. “We are going through difficult times in human, health and economic terms. Lewis is aware of this situation, he always showed loyalty and understanding,” said the Austrian, who was blunt with the alleged condition of impediment to hire certain figures, including Max Verstappen: “The teammates were never talked about.”
The fight against racism and in favor of diversity, personal battles that Lewis Hamilton also transferred to Mercedes Source: Archive – Credit: Daimler AG
The one-year contract allows Hamilton to retire at the end of 2021, months before F.1 takes a different tack with new technical regulations. The global Covid-19 pandemic delayed the “revolution” for next year, so the teams have the chassis and gearbox frozen, engine development will continue to be limited and aerodynamic tests will be reduced. With the postponement of the measures, Mercedes is once again the structure to beat and thus increases Hamilton’s chances of achieving the eighth title. Stay in the Big circus It gives you visibility to communicate your personal struggles, as well as deepening your footprint on statistics that are already dreamy. “Lewis’s competitive record is among the best the sporting world has seen and he is a valuable ambassador for our brand and our partners. The history of Mercedes and Lewis has been written in the history books of our sport in the last eight seasons and we are hungry for competition to add more chapters, “explained Wolff, on the desire to extend the dominance that Mercedes has exercised since 2014.
“Getting an eighth title would be an incredible thing,” Hamilton said. to the Gazzetta dello Sport. Owner of the main brands – highest number of victories (95), pole positions (98), podiums (165) -, other records that he could break in 2021 are: nine consecutive victories in a year, by Sebastian Vettel in 2013; nine wins on the same stage – he won eight times at the Hungaroring, while Michael Schumacher did it eight times at Magny Cours-; The eight poles that Ayrton Senna chained between the 1988 Spanish GP and the 1989 United States GP are displayed as another record on the horizon for the Briton, who in 2015 was seven.
Statistics remain a challenge for Lewis Hamilton; In 2021, the Briton may become the driver with the most crowns in the history of Formula 1 Credit: JORGE GUERRERO / POOL / AFP
For Mercedes it is also positive to renew for a season. The Brackley factory retains its driver formula for the fifth year in a row and both Hamilton and Bottas will be free at the end of the year, allowing them to face the new cycle with a new line-up. There he would carve the figure of George Russell, a pilot who gained experience in Williams and took the seat of Hamilton when the Briton was absent due to coronavirus from the Sakhir GP, on December 6. And in the event that the sevenfold champion decided to remain in the Big circus, I would keep the best driver in the paddock accompanied by who is considered the future star of F.1.
Hamilton assured himself the opportunity to rewrite history once again and Mercedes the possibility of being unbeatable and fully renewed from 2022, when a new era begins. The formula for success is still valid.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will retrace the Formula 1 path together for the ninth consecutive year; 2021 could mean the closing of a historic cycle, with the Briton retiring from the Great Circus and the team renewing itself, heading for a new sporting era, in 2022 Source: Archive – Credit: Daimler AG
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