Lewis Hamilton says the freedom to undertake "the great things" he's doing beyond F1 is more important than the level of his retainer when negotiating his future with Mercedes.
Hamilton is in the final year of his current deal with the Silver Arrows squad, and all signs point to an extension of the six-time world champion's collaboration with Mercedes.
In a joint interview with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conducted earlier this year with Sky F1's Martin Brundle but released in full this week, Hamilton suggested that his next contract with the German outfit will likely be his last in F1.
And the 34-year-old is not putting money at the forefront of his demands as negotiations unfold.
"When I joined the team, I opened up doors to be able to do things like [my] partnership with Tommy [Hilfiger],” Hamilton explained
"if we hadn’t had this earlier discussion, Tommy wouldn’t be a part of our team, I wouldn’t be able to do the great things that I’m doing.
"So just small bits we have to tweak here and there which enable those things, which then don’t take away from the primary goal, which is to win world titles.
"Every year your life is moving and shifting and your plan for your next five years is always different.
"Obviously I’m going into potentially my last period of time in my sport and of course you want to maximise financially but it’s more about results.
"It’s about the journey and the destination and the other things that you’re doing also that complement that."
Sitting opposite Wolff during the Sky F1 talk, Hamilton underscored the Austrian's open-minded management style and the latitude of personal freedom awarded to him, and the benefits that approach has delivered to the Mercedes team.
"I think [he’s] unlike other managers [who] have generally been quite narrow-minded in a lot of things," Hamilton contended.
"Perhaps no one else would allow me to do, for example, the thing I do with Tommy, which is not conflicting to any of the brands.
"If anything, that’s helped elevate us. We’ve brought a little bit of colour. Before we were a black-and-white team and now we have colours on our shirts which was not a Mercedes way in the past.
"But even Mercedes are becoming a more flexible and more appealing brand. And I think that’s only been good for us."
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