Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has insisted a new contract to keep Lewis Hamilton at the team has been "emotionally" agreed. Hamilton's future has been subjected to F1's churning rumour mill over the past 18 months since losing out to Max Verstappen in the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi season finale. After concerns the seven-time World Champion would retire over the issues that arose from the race, Hamilton returned for the first season of the sport's newest technical regulations. But Mercedes' struggles with the W13 continued into the first iteration of the W14 this year, with speculation again building over whether Hamilton would walk away from the Silver Arrows - Ferrari mooted in Italian media as a potential suitor. Any suggestion of a move away was quashed by Hamilton in Barcelona, where he and Wolff intimated that talks had already been taking place over a new deal and that negotiations were close to being completed.
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With the summer break drawing near and no news of a new contract being announced, speculation has again started to mount. Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Hamilton insisted that the signing of his new deal was "very, very close". Confirming the process was ongoing, Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 : "The state is, we haven't signed it. "But emotionally, we have done it."
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