Mercedes pay structure 'important' to team as Hamilton deal nears
"Lewis knows his value and we know his value," says Merc boss with Hamilton on verge of joining Alonso & Vettel as F1's top earners
Tuesday 21 April 2015 15:20, UK
Toto Wolff says there is a pay structure at Mercedes but insists this hasn’t caused problems during their contract negotiations with Lewis Hamilton.
After several weeks of discussions following the restarting of talks during pre-season, Hamilton and Mercedes are in the final stages of formalising a contract extension with Sky sources understanding that an announcement may be made as early as midweek.
While the success of the partnership since Hamilton’s arrival in 2013 has made a new deal almost inevitable, reports earlier this year suggested that the world champion was pushing for a big pay increase with Wolff forced to shoot down claims that the driver was set to be offered an astonishing £1m per week to stay.
Wolff, Mercedes’ motorsport chief, insists the salary of a driver has to be in line with the F1 team's commercial capabilities but stresses that Hamilton and the team have been "very aligned" over what the 30-year-old will earn under his new terms.
“Pay structure is extremely important,” Wolff told Sky Sports News HQ’s Craig Slater.
“As a team we need to be commercially viable and it needs to make sense. This is the basis of all discussions and of all negotiations.
“The pay structure was never an issue between Lewis and the team. We have the same expectations. Lewis knows his value and we know his value and that was all very positive and very aligned.”
According to the Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, Hamilton and then Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso were the joint highest paid drivers in F1 in 2014 with salaries of £19.6m.
But following last year’s title triumph, Hamilton’s new deal is expected to feature even more lucrative terms to put him on parity with the sport's current highest earners, Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, following their winter moves to McLaren and Ferrari respectively.
Although Vettel is believed to have been handed a multi-million 'signing on fee' after triggering an opt-out clause in his Red Bull deal, Alonso's basic salary is reckoned to be the biggest in F1 at a reputed £25m.
