Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Sign Three-Year Deal Worth Nearly $155M

Mercedes announced on Wednesday that Lewis Hamilton has "finally agreed a new three-year deal" understood to be worth nearly £100M ($155.5M), according to Daniel Johnson of the London TELEGRAPH. It will take the reigning champion onto a par with Sebastian Vettel as the best paid driver in F1, and should "keep him at Mercedes until the end of 2018, by which time he will be 34 and in the latter years of his career." When bonuses are taken into account, his contract will be worth more than £30M ($46.6M) a season, a "significant upgrade on his current deal," which is worth £21M ($32.6M) a year. The delay in signing prompted speculation that Hamilton had been "toying with a move to Ferrari, but he has insisted throughout that sorting out a new contract with Mercedes was a mere formality." Hamilton: "Mercedes is my home and I couldn't be happier to be staying here for another three years" (TELEGRAPH, 5/20).