Formula One world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton has finally signed a new one-year deal with Mercedes for the 2021 season.
The news was confirmed by the all-conquering team this morning after months of deliberation and delay, and with just over a month before pre-season testing gets underway.
It is believed that Hamilton, who was knighted in the New Year honours, was compelled to compromise on his original pay demands of £40million a year given the financial climate and his lack of alternative seats.
Hamilton became the sport s most successful driver ever last year after breaking Michael Schumacher s all-time win record and drawing level with the German s achievement of seven titles. He has won 74 of his 95 race wins with the Brackley squad.
Wolff signs 3-year extension with F1 Mercedes
British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has added to his sports investments by buying a third of Formula One champion Mercedes through his chemical giant INEOS, the British-based team said Friday. Team Principal Toto Wolff has also signed a three-year contract extension to remain with Mercedes.
The Canadian Press Lewis Hamilton Toto Wolff , The Canadian Press
BRACKLEY, England British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has added to his sports investments by buying a third of Formula One champion Mercedes through his chemical giant INEOS, the British-based team said Friday.
Toto Wolff has also signed on to be Team Principal and CEO of the Mercedes F1 team for another three years! #F1
As part of the Mercedes Formula 1 team’s efforts to improve diversity and inclusion, they have launched a five-year programme called ‘Accelerate 25’, which aims for 25% of new starters in their team to come from under-represented groups until the end of 2025.
The team, which launched a black livery for 2020 to mark a greater focus on diversity, have already begun steps in their Accelerate 25 programme with unconscious bias training for 200 recruiters within Mercedes, and diversity and inclusion training for 150 managers, with every employee to have taken the diversity training by June 2021.
The seven-time F1 constructors champions are also working with the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK) to support engineers from BAME backgrounds, and have already begun working with the Mulberry STEM Academy to inspire more engineers from BAME backgrounds.