Toto Wolff has dismissed speculation in the media regarding the retainer Mercedes has agreed upon with Lewis Hamilton to secure a prolongation of the British driver's services.
The German insisted rather on the long-term nature of the agreement which spans three years and aptly proves both parties quest for stability and constancy.
"The discussions around the contract have been out there for quite a while," commented Wolff. "We had the terms already a couple of weeks ago and declaring that it was a three year term seemed reasonable to us, in order to show that it’s a long term relationship and stability is important for us. On the figures out there, I can’t really comment. The only thing I can say is that there have been lots of nonsense out there as well."
Wolff was put to task by a journalist remarking, rather foolishly, that Hamilton would allegedly be earning in the next three years about five times as much as Mercedes-Benz's own CEO, for working ten percent of the time based on speculation Hamilton's contract is worth 33 million pounds a season.
But Wolff responded accordingly: "I can’t even comment on that question. This is a market and in that market you have a value or you don’t. Lewis is one of the best racing drivers out there, maybe the best at the moment and he has a huge value for the brand and fundamentally this is what drives his value and this is a classical win-win situation for the team and for himself."
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