Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

No Rosberg extension before the summer

Nico Rosberg will have to wait until the summer "at the earliest" before Mercedes will discuss a contract extension with him.

Toto Wolff has previously warned both Rosberg and team-mate Lewis Hamilton that he will change the driver line-up if their rivalry starts to have a negative effect on the team. With Rosberg's contract set to expire at the end of 2016, Wolff has confirmed he will not be making a decision on whether to retain the German early in the new season.

"We are talking about an extension in the summer at the earliest," Wolff told Speedweek. "Until then, let's look at what happens."

While Wolff has backed Hamilton's jet-set lifestyle as he believes it brings the best out of his driver, he says any potential change of driver line-up will not be dictated by a contract expiry date, saying the triple world champion has certain conditions to abide by.

"There are clauses with defaults in [Hamilton's] contract, as with any other staff too. For behaviour which is damaging to the company, for example."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.