McLaren, fairytale contract for Hamilton?

According to the British press, McLaren is willing to increase Lewis Hamilton's salary by a third and offer him a five-year contract that expires in 2017.

The main English newspapers agree in reporting that the Woking team could increase the offer to the English talent in order to retain him: Hamilton will end his five-year contract with the team that brought him to F1 at the end of the season, but it is not sure to sign the extension. His visit to Red Bull last year for the Canadian GP raised many speculations and the expiry of contracts of many big names at the end of 2012, including Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher, could bring radical changes to the teams. McLaren, however, is keen to maintain its all-British driver line-up with Hamilton and Jenson Button and the Telegraph newspaper reveals that to do so it would be willing to move from the current 15 million pounds per year, equivalent to 22 million euros, to 20: at the current exchange rate that's 30 million euros, a total of 150 million distributed over a five-year period, as also confirmed by the Guardian and the Mirror.

However, it doesn't seem to be a question of money: in fact, remuneration seems to be a secondary aspect of the negotiation, with Hamilton who, according to rumors, seems to be looking for greater freedom to exploit commercial opportunities and a reduction in obligations with McLaren's sponsors, in order to give him more free time between races. Furthermore, Hamilton wants the guarantee that McLaren can provide him with a winning car. At present, however, the Englishman makes no statements on the matter, suggesting that negotiations will begin in the second half of the season. But it remains to be seen how the English car championship will go: after an excellent start, if the negative trend seen in Bahrain and Spain continues, Hamilton could also decide to want a change of scenery.

Lorena Bianchi