Hamilton and Mercedes have🐲 been locked in talks all year to extend their partnership, which is due to expire at the end of the 2023 F1 season.

Despite assurances that a deal is a ꦰformality, Hamilton has still not put pen to paper on a new contract.

Ex-F1 driver Coulthard was quoted by the : “Mercedes will want a cerꦡtain amount of time from Lewis for their partners. 

“Merc♋edes will have sold sponsorship on obta🍎ining access to their drivers.

“Some businesses will have signe🅠d up with the Silver Arrows because Lewis is there, rather than George Russell. 

“Perhaps Lewis might be wanting to do fewer da♊ys or have fe🥃wer commitments?

“What Lewis will be signing up for🅷 goes way beyond him driving at a grand prix. 

“It is about what rights he retains in terms of his image,🌠 and what rights he sells to the team.&n♓bsp;

“Mercedes are buyingღ more than just Lewis’ driving services. They are buying his pro🐼motional image and his PR image.

“I don’t think there is any realistic chance that Lewis will leave Mercedes unless there is a major fallout. And I can’t see🌺 that hꦑappening.

“Who would the major fallout be with? Even if it was with Toto, Lewis’ relationship with Mercedes’ parent company Daimler is much longer than Toto’s emerg🐈ence as team principal of Mercedes.”

Lawrence Barretto at F1.com p💖rovided optimism that Hamilton and Mercedes’ alliance wꦺould continue.

“Neither Mercedes boss Toto Wolff nor Hamilton appear stressed by the amount of time iไt is taking to get a new deal over the line. They’ve both said thatꦡ the key terms – including money and length of the arrangement – have been agreed,” he reported.

“It’s just, as Wolff put✤s it, ‘trivial things that need to be cleaned up’ in the contrac🤪t before it all gets signed off.

“Hamilton has left it late to sign a new deal in the past. It wasn’t until the eve of pre-season in 2021 that he inked a one-year extension to race in tha💙t upcoming campaign. Just six months later, he penned a new two-year deal, taking him up to the end of 2023.

“The 38-year-old reckons he can race on for at least anotꦜher five years, the Briton believing he still has what it takes to win a record eighth Wꦓorld Championship.”