Lewis Hamilton expects to start contract extension talks with Mercedes in the coming months.
Hamilton signed a two-year deal at the start of this season to stay in F1 until the end of 2023, but has recently made it clear he wants to keep racing beyond then.
Red Bull ended Mercedes’ run of eight constructors’ championships this season but Hamilton has no doubts his team can return to the summit in the coming years.
“We are going to do another deal,” Hamilton told the BBC. “We’re going to sit down and we’re going to discuss it in these next couple of months, I would say.
“My goal is to continue to be with Mercedes. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13. And it really is my family. Mercedes-Benz have stuck with me through thick and thin.
“They stuck with me through being expelled at school. They stuck with me through everything that was going on through 2020. They’ve stuck me through my mistakes and with me through the ups and downs.
“And so I really believe in this brand. I believe in the people that are within the organisation. And I want to be the best team-mate I can be to them, because I think we can make the brand even better, more accessible, even stronger than it is. And I think I can be an integral part of that.”
Hamilton also opened up on his pain at seeing further doubt cast on Max Verstappen’s 2021 title, following the FIA’s announcement that Red Bull overspent the budget cap last year.
Verstappen controversially beat Hamilton on the final lap of the final race when former race director Michael Masi incorrectly applied the Safety Car restart procedure to hand the Dutch driver a massive advantage.
“That, for sure, brings up a little bit of emotion,” Hamilton said.
“Because you kind of buried it and moved on and then it comes back up and it’s like another bit of a kick. And, yeah, that just bought it all kind of fresh again. So then [it was a case of] just getting back into the phase of just suppressing it and moving forwards.”
Red Bull and the FIA will resume their talks over the budget cap breach on Thursday. The FIA has offered Red Bull an accepted breach agreement (ABA), outlining their penalty, which is believed to be financial and sporting.
Red Bull can either accept that or take the matter to the cost cap adjudication panel to further protest against the FIA’s finding.
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