Wolff says deadline Hamilton deal now set before Bahrain GP
Jan.25 - Toto Wolff has set an eleventh-hour deadline for the conclusion of contract negotiations with Lewis Hamilton.
Dr Helmut Marko is regarding the obviously troubled negotiations as a potential boost for Red Bull, telling RTL that he hopes the "unrest works in our favour".
"The lawyers are hard at work," Mercedes boss Wolff told ORF's Sport am Sonntag program.
He was speaking from Kitzbuhel, where he spent the last ten days in quarantine after testing positive for covid-19.
"No symptoms, thankfully," said the Austrian. "We're out of quarantine now."
As for the Hamilton talks, Wolff is setting a worryingly late deadline for their conclusion.
"We have to sign something at some point before Bahrain at the latest," he said.
Wolff insists that he is not making any serious threats in the negotiations, amid rumours George Russell is the obvious favourite to step in.
"In our long-term partnership it is never about any threatening gestures. I did threaten him that I am next in line for his seat," he joked.
"We will pull out the pen at some point. We have such a solid basis in our relationship and we want to continue to have more successes in the future."
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Great news! Toto & Lewis are a phenomenal business combination.
Agree, just wish they will start a business somewhere away from FI (SORRY...)
get rid of hamilton and his extra-curricular antics. F1 will be better of without him, thank you very much.
You know, it's amusing how bad minded, jealous, envious, transparent and downright racist most of you Lewis critics are. You poor souls clearly don't realize how he feeds off your negativity and gets stronger. True pundits may not like his personality, but still praise his talent.
So keep it up morons and closet racists. He'll be the official greatest F1 driver ever by the end of 2022! To quote his most infamous tattoo....."Still I Rise".
hes only the best driver due to the merc car........., if you cant see that then there is no hope for you..............same as mansell and hill and jv and prost when they won , ...... the best car so they won, er not rocket science...
Edited --- ok not jv , but as the programme says " The stars the car "......not hamster who slags off his home town....... but oh yeah hes sooooo blessed lol
Was he in the best car when he almost won in 07?! Was he in the best car when he won in 08?! Was Mercedes winning Constructor's or driver titles with Schumacher and Roseberg before Lewis joined the team?! Did Rosberg only beat him by a single point in the very last race in 2016 despite Lewis suffering multiple car failures and reliability issues; then retired like a scared bitch because he knew Lewis was out for blood(figuratively), hence, couldn't handle the pressure of another season?! Wouldn't Bottas be winning titles had Lewis not been there using the same machinery to whip him by 124 points despite missing a race last season due to Covid?! Doesn't the very best driver ends up in the very best machinery based on telemetry data analysis?! Apparently not!
So to simple minded, non objective an envious people who have to rationalize their jealousy(like yourself apparently), it's the car.
Actually the top team cars were considerably closer in 2007 and 2008 while the domination of the last few years (by Mercedes) was not present then.
In 2007 Reikkonen beat Lewis by one point and then in 2008 Lewis beat Massa by one point, this is true. Yes Lewis is an excellent driver, however winning or losing the driver championship by one point hardly qualifies him as the best of all times. While the point system was different in those years the ranking would have been the same and the point difference equally insignificant.
Mercedes reappeared as a Formula One team in 2010 and became more competitive each year. As of 2014 all constructor championship have gone to Mercedes basically on a no contest basis, everybody knows this. I would tend to agree that Lewis is the best Mercedes driver since 2014 but he has never been in a situation where he won a grand prix with less than the best equipment then available. Look at the likes of Max Verstappen, Gilles Villeneuve and Jim Clark for that kind of talent.
Your comments concerning Nico and Valteri are too silly to address.
Lewis is obviously a very talented driver but he has not consistently won in a car that was not dominant. I like Lewis but still think that Fangio, Nuvolari, Clark, Stewart and Ascari exhibited a capability that has not been seen from Lewis. This was the ability to win consistently in an inferior car. This was magnified by Russel's performance in a car he did not fit into where he was able to dominate. Russel is also obviously an exceptional talent but this demonstrates how dominant the car is. I like Lewis and think that last year caused him a great deal of introspection and he wants to use his notoriety to do far more to make a difference as much as is possible. I do not think the contract negotiations are over money but more allowing him the flexibility to make the difference that he wants to make. I believe that after he leaves F1 he will have a greater impact on the world because he knows he can and he sees the need.
Sir Lewis has won at least one race in every year he has been in F1. That in itself is phenomenal, especially when the list of drivers who have NEVER won a race is massive. Nice try Budd, but Sir Lewis Hamilton is the G.O.A.T.
@True Post: Point 1. Your idea of equipment performance closeness is flawed. The Ferraris may not have had the gap in performance of the Schumacher, Red Bull and current Merc era, but they were still the clear best of the pack then. I will use point 2 to reiterate this.
Point 2: Keep in mind who was Lewis's team mate in both those years. Alonso, who was considered the best at that time, was being schooled by his ROOKIE team mate. So Lewis winning or losing by a point in his maiden years going up against Kimi and Alonso as a rookie was a very big deal back then in case you forgot; and still is a big deal!
Point 3: If I'm to interpret this one correctly, you're insinuating that Lewis was just lucky to join Merc at the time he did. So their performance increase had nothing to do with his talent and value added expertise in car set up for the engineers. Well hey....whatever u gotta tell yourself pal Lol. Ironically Rosberg was supposed to be the highly technical one with the academic background, yet he only won a title after getting Lewis's garage crew in a swap that year. What a coincidence! Maybe this fact was lost on you why you considered the 4th point silly. I will correct myself in that Ros actually won by 5 points and not one point.
In case the Bottas point also escaped you, the gap in performance is what separates the good from the great(exceptional).
I'll finish with this. Who is the greatest driver in wet conditions from 07 till now based on consistency. Here's a clue. He won the WET Turkish GP and clinched his 7th world title in superior style last year. Nothing like wet conditions to demonstrate well rounded skills and separate gods from mere mortals(figuratively). Verstappen who?!
Fun fact; Lewis has won a race in every year he's been in F1(which includes the crap McLaren years of 09 to 12) and no other driver in history has done this. Lesson complete.
This type of nearly foaming at the mouth post demonstrates why it’s often impossible to have a civil discussion as to the relative skills of drivers. Too often there seems to be a need to defend one’s favorite with sarcasm, insults, absolutism, revision of history, and, as demonstrated here, deliver one’s view as a lesson to others.
My perspective is that Lewis is an excellent driver, all am saying is that his car has contributed significantly to his success. Good for him, it does not keep me awake at night. Many are saying the same thing and they are probably not all total idiots. How else could a back-bencher with zero points sit in Lewis’s car and deliver the surprise of the season, why is there a need to accuse Ferrari of cheating should it compete with Mercedes?
Be that as it may, if the cars were closer in performance we would have more interesting races. It’s disappointing that most of the close racing of the last years takes place in mid field.
Typically, our professor friend needs to close his post with a swipe at Max Verstappen. Does he really think Max came into Formula One at 17 years old because he was a dud?
My sentiments are in alignment with yours. If you want to compare driver ability you need to somehow equalize the vehicle package, era and versatility. That is why I still think that Fangio, Moss, Ascari, Clark, Stewart, and to some extent Schumacher could and did win in inferior packages on a consistent basis and many of the early drivers also won across a multitude of formula platforms. There is no doubt that Hamilton is an exceptional driver but the example of Russell taking a car that he had never driven until the race weekend and one that did not fit him to significant physical detriment and dominating until a team pit error demonstrates the dominance of the Mercedes package. It brings to question as to whether other drivers might have accomplished similarly to Hamilton had they been in the Mercedes package. I think that the answer is undoubtedly so. While if one asks if other drivers might have accomplished what Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Clark and Stewart did had they been in the same vehicle and the answer leans more toward a likely no. The question is could Hamilton have won consistently in an inferior package if F1 did not have such a significant performance disparity with the additional detriment of aero instability in traffic making competitive racing much more difficult? That is a question that we are never likely to know the answer to as he did not perform above the capability of the package when Maclaren was starting its decline and we have no other circumstances to provide a comparison.
Oops...touched a nerve? Lol never mind. You're entitled to your opinion folks....but not your own facts! Let's see what Ross Brawn has to contribute.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/ross-brawn-lewis-hamilton-not-the-car/
I need not go further. Enough said.
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