Formula 1 record champion Lewis Hamilton has prematurely extended his contract with Mercedes.
The 36-year-old Brit signed a contract with the world championship racing team for the past seven years until the end of the 2023 season, as Mercedes announced on Saturday on the sidelines of the Austrian Grand Prix.
"I can hardly believe that I have been working with this fantastic team for almost nine years and I am very pleased that we will continue our partnership in the next two years," said Hamilton: "We have achieved a lot together, but we can achieve a lot more, both on and off the track. "
Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff explained: “I told Lewis that he could always drive with us as long as this unbelievable passion for racing burns in him.
His successes in this sport speak for themselves and with his experience, his speed and his racing intelligence he reaches the peak of his performance. "
Hamilton came to the Silver Arrows for the 2013 season as Michael Schumacher's successor. He won the drivers' championship for the team with the star in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. He won his first title in the McLaren in 2008. In the current season, after eight races, Hamilton is in second place in the World Cup behind the 13-year-old Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
For the coming season, a fundamentally changed technical regulation will take effect in Formula 1 - a challenge that the team and top driver want to face together.
“At the beginning of the new Formula 1 era from the 2022 season on, I couldn't ask for a better driver in the team than Lewis,” said Wolff.
Hamilton said, "We are entering a new era of vehicles that will be challenging and exciting at the same time, and I can't wait to find out what else we can achieve together."
Hamilton is the most successful driver in Formula 1 history.
He shares the record of seven world championship titles with Michael Schumacher, in the Grand Prix victories (98) and pole positions (100), Lewis Hamilton, who has meanwhile been promoted to Sir, is the clear number one.