Lewis Hamilton pushes back on Ferrari speculation, states new deal with Mercedes ‘almost’ done

Speaking at Thursday’s press conferences ahead of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton brushed aside reports of communication with Ferrari, and outlined that negotiations on a new contract with Mercedes are close to being finalized.

“Naturally when you’re in contract negotiations there’s always going to be speculation,” he said Thursday. “Ultimately, unless you hear it from me, that’s what it is.”

Hamilton went on to assert that negotiations between his representatives and Mercedes were continuing, and the two parties were “almost” at the end.

“As I said, my team’s working closely behind the scenes with Toto. We’re almost at the end of having a contract ready,” said the Mercedes driver. “Having the team focus on that so I can just do my job is a much better position than I was in before because I remember I used to do negotiations on my own and it was very stressful, so I don’t have to do that any more.”

The week began with speculation about a shock offer from Ferrari to lure Hamilton away from Mercedes at the end of his contract, which runs out at the end of the current season. Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff dismissed those reports earlier this week, expressing his confidence in a new deal with Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver was not the only involved party to brush back on the rumors. Speaking to the media on Thursday Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur did the same. “You know perfectly that at this stage of the season, you will have each week a different story,” the Ferrari boss said to the media on Thursday. “And we are not sending an offer to Lewis Hamilton. We didn’t do it.”

While a new deal with Hamilton could put one issue facing Mercedes to bed, there is still the lingering issue of the W14, their challenger for the current season. After weeks of speculation regarding their planned upgrades, Mercedes finally pulled the cover back on their car, unveiling a new look for the Monaco Grand Prix.

It seems the days of the zero-pod are behind us.

Hamilton addressed the upgrades as well on Thursday.

“We’re still a championship-winning team, it’s just we’ve had the wrong car, there have been some decisions that have been made over the past two years that have not been ideal and we’re working our way through that [and] all the energy is going toward [it],” he said.

“We have a new upgrade this weekend, the team have worked incredibly hard to bring this upgrade. We already, after Bahrain, decided that’s what we are going to do,” Hamilton added. “I was a little bit gutted when the last race got cancelled because I was excited to bring this new package. And while here is not the best platform track-wise to really see those come to fruition we’ll hopefully experience that more next week.”