Hamilton asks for too much money? "How on earth do they know that?"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
As the official start of the new F1 season slowly approaches, one big question mark still hangs over the driver market. Will Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes reach an agreement for 2021? Former F1 mechanic Marc Priestley thinks so, although he finds the situation interesting.
"I don't think it's a panic situation yet with Mercedes or Lewis Hamilton," Priestley said in his latest vlog on Youtube. "I still expect him to be in the car at the first race. But there are definitely some sticking points."
According to the rumours, Hamilton wants to earn a sum that is too high for the head office at Daimler. Moreover, Hamilton would like to secure that 'expensive' contract for several years. Priestley does not understand where these stories come from.
Priestley believes little of the rumours
"I’m not one of those people that doesn't buy into internet rumours about someone claiming to know he wants an extra couple of zero’s at the end of his salary or he wants a free car. How on earth does somebody know that? These are private negotiations. Unless somebody specifically leaked that, which I find very hard to believe at this point.
"So I fully expect that will come to a successful conclusion, but it’s definitely interesting that there are clearly some major stinking points they find hard to overcome," Priestley said.
The situation is a little reminiscent of Ayrton Senna in 1993 at McLaren. Senna actually wanted to join Williams as soon as possible and was therefore paid per race by Ron Dennis. That whole season there was a chance that Senna would leave the team at any moment.