BUDAPEST (Reuters) – A new contract keeping seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes beyond the end of the season is yet to be signed but ’emotionally’ done, team boss Toto Wolff said on Saturday.
The Austrian was speaking after the 38-year-old Briton lapped faster than anyone in final practice for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, a race Hamilton has won a record eight times.
“The status is we haven’t signed it (the contract) but emotionally we have done it,” Wolff told Sky Sports television.
The contract has been a drawn-out talking point in the sport, as has been the case with most of the driver’s previous deals.
Wolff, who is also a co-owner of the Mercedes team, told reporters earlier this month that the discussion was no longer about financial aspects.
“This is not a money discussion at all. It is about the future, what is it that we want to do right and optimise?,” he said after the Austrian Grand Prix.
“We’re not talking anything any more about duration, money, all of that, it’s other topics.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
