Lewis Hamilton (Photo Credit: AP)
Lewis Hamilton is set to continue with Mercedes in the Formula One 2021 season after signing a new one-year agreement with the team.
- News18 Sports
- Last Updated: February 08, 2021, 16:49 IST
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Lewis Hamilton finally put pen to paper to a new one-year deal with Mercedes after much delay, the Formula One team made the announcement on Monday. Hamilton is the reigning world champion while Mercedes is the reigning F1 World Constructors’ Champion. The upcoming one year will be the ninth consecutive season that Hamilton spends at Mercedes. Since joining Mercedes in 2013, Hamilton is now the all-time race win record holder after he broke Michael Schumacher’s record of six Drivers’ Championship last year.
“A significant part of the new agreement builds upon the joint commitment to greater diversity and inclusion in motorsport that was made last year by Lewis and Mercedes. This will take the form of a joint charitable foundation, which will have the mission of supporting greater diversity and inclusion in all its forms in motorsport,” Mercedes said in its statement.
“I am excited to be heading into my ninth season with my Mercedes teammates. Our team has achieved incredible things together and we look forward to building on our success even further, while continuously looking to improve, both on and off the track.
“I’m equally determined to continue the journey we started to make motorsport more diverse for future generations and I am grateful that Mercedes has been extremely supportive of my call to address this issue. I’m proud to say we are taking that effort further this year by launching a foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in the sport. I am inspired by all that we can build together and can’t wait to get back on the track in March,” Hamilton said in Mercedes’ official press release.
Mercedes CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff said, “We have always been aligned with Lewis that we would continue, but the very unusual year we had in 2020 meant it took some time to finish the process. Together, we have decided to extend the sporting relationship for another season and to begin a longer-term project to take the next step in our shared commitment to greater diversity within our sport. Lewis’s competitive record stands alongside the best the sports world has ever seen, and he is a valued ambassador for our brand and our partners. The story of Mercedes and Lewis has written itself into the history books of our sport over the past eight seasons, and we are hungry to compete and to add more chapters to it.”