Wolff on Hamilton's contract: "It must be this season"

Team boss Toto Wolff says Mercedes needs a decision from Lewis Hamilton about his future before the end of the season. The team does not want to bring any uncertainty about the lineup for 2021.

Haven't had time yet

"It has to happen this season. You can't start a new season without knowing what drivers line-up you have," says Wolff to Channel 4. However, Wolff does say behind the scenes that he expects Hamilton to sign up.

"Due to the intensity of this season we simply haven't had much time to spend together yet, because you have to recover well in the days between races," Wolff continues. "We're keeping it loose. At one point we already said that we take the old contract that we haven't looked at for three years and say: okay, what are we going to change?"

Best paid driver

Wolff says that Hamilton will remain the best paid driver of his generation. "The deal is performance. The performance on our part to give him the best car he can win with and the performance on his part to be the fastest driver there is."

The Austrian believes that Hamilton has never failed to achieve that goal and hopes that Mercedes has never failed him either.