Motorsport

LEWIS HAMILTON could be set for a pay-cut following the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The F1 world champion has not started talks over the new deal because he feels uncomfortable speaking about it when people are losing their jobs.

1

Lewis Hamilton could be set for a PAY-CUT on his £40million-per-year Mercedes contract
Hamilton’s current contract, believed to be worth around £40million a year, is due to expire in December.
But the Brit’s moral compass has kicked in after last month Merc’s owners Daimler said they needed to cut more than the 15,000 jobs they had previously announced.
He said: “Ultimately, it honestly doesn’t feel like the right time to sit down and talk about it.
“When you think about so many people in the world who have lost their jobs, people unemployed, and to sit down and negotiate a big contract, it doesn’t feel like the most important thing that I need to apply time to at this second.

“I do want to continue with the team and it is not a big effort for us to sit down and get it done.
“It is just right now I don’t feel comfortable about it so I am going to wait a little bit longer.”

At last week’s British Grand Prix, he said he had not even started talking to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff about new terms.
And Thursday, ahead of F1’s 70th Anniversary GP, the 35-year-old said he intends to commit to the team to help see through their increased diversity programme.

He added: “I am not talking to anyone else and I am looking forward to continuing, particularly as we have just started a new chapter as a team in terms of how we educate ourselves, how we understand what we are going to do to help be more diverse and more inclusive.
“I am super excited that what is possible with Mercedes-Benz and this team moving forward. It will get done at some stage so I am not stressed.”

Hamilton now has a whopping 30 point lead in the drivers’ championship ahead of his team-mate, Bottas, who yesterday (THU) signed a new one-year deal.
It is understood that Bottas’s £12million-a year deal with the Silver Arrows has simply been extended until the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, Hamilton says that this season’s title race comes in “the most important year of his life” as he continues to fight to end racism and support the Black Lives Matter movement.
He added: “It is the most important year of my life to date with everything that is going on.

PUMPING HART
Free agent Joe Hart shows off shredded physique as he hunts for a new club

Gossip

GOLD AND SILVA
David Silva offered £52k a week, private jet and ‘elegant house’ by Lazio

Exclusive

Ry’d you do it?
Fraser’s Cherries walk-out backfires as Arsenal and Spurs interest dries up

BALE OUT
Bale decides NOT to play against Man City as Zidane refuses to elaborate

Exclusive

See ya, Mait
Arsenal put Maitland-Niles for sale for £30m in desperate bid to raise cash

Exclusive

BEES WHACKED
Aston Villa eye up £38m double raid on Brentford for Watkins and Benrahma

“It is a different fight, championship-wise to other years. In the past, we have had the years where we fought Ferrari or Red Bull.
“This year, it is different up to this point. But I do think it is a special year and I don’t take that lightly.
“People often ask where we get our motivation from and there are so many things to take inspiration for and to be fighting for a championship in a time like this is empowering and exciting with the thought that there could be change to follow.” More

MURRAY WALKER says Lewis Hamilton is a better driver than Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna – because he’s a “clean” racer.
The legendary commentator, who turns 97 in October, has watched hundreds of F1 drivers across eight decades.

3

Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has been lauded by legendary commentator Murray WalkerCredit: PA:Press Association

3

Hamilton is on course to win his seventh Formula One World ChampionshipCredit: Getty Images – Getty
But Walker says the current world champion is the cream of the crop because he has never used dirty tactics to win races.
Both Schumacher and Senna had contentious moments during their careers, but Walker says Hamilton is as “clean as a whistle”.
He said: “Well, people say to me, ‘Who is the greatest?’, and I always say, ‘Look, I think it’s impossible to say, because the drivers and the circuits and the cars were different’.
“Juan Manel Fangio took a lot of beating, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart — there again I could go on — but which is the best I really don’t know.

“I used to say Fangio. I think I’m going to have to say very shortly Lewis Hamilton, because if you look at it in terms of statistics, he’s already got more poles than Schumacher.
“He’s got at least three years in him if he doesn’t hurt himself or leave Mercedes for some reason or they decide to stop, in which case he’s got at least another three championships ahead of him, so statistically he will become the greatest.
“But he’s also in my opinion — and this is very contentious indeed — better than either Schumacher or Senna because both of them, Schumacher and Senna, adopted at various times in their career highly debatable driving tactics.
“Like Schumacher stopping deliberately at Monaco to prevent Fernando Alonso getting pole position, like Schumacher colliding with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997, like Senna with Alain Prost in 1990 in Japan, and Lewis Hamilton has never been anything like that.

3

Michael Schumacher won a total of 91 Grand Prix races as well as seven world championshipsCredit: EPA

The ten greatest F1 drivers of all-time – according to SunSport’s motorsport correspondent Ben Hunt
“He’s always driven as clean as a whistle. He’s an extremely nice, gigantically talented driver, and I don’t think we’ve ever seen anybody like him before.”
Formula One will celebrate its 70th anniversary at Silverstone this weekend with a special GP to mark the occasion.
But while Hamilton has dominated for much of the last decade, Walker says the sport’s best era was in the 1970s and 1980s but believes it is still just as exciting.
Speaking to In the Fast Lane, the official podcast of the Australian Grand Prix, Walker added: “A lot of it is looking backwards through rose-coloured glasses.
“It’s still mighty exciting when you take into account what a contest it is with man and machine.
“But I have to admit that for me the 70s and 80s were the most exciting time — but then I was very much more involved with it at the time because I was literally a part of it and having to communicate to the public worldwide what was going on.
“It was very exciting times, when people like Jackie Stewart were driving, and we got the most incredible races at Silverstone, with Nigel Mansell beating Nelson Piquet, for instance, and various others.
“You have to bear in mind that I’m an old codger. I was actually at the first grand prix they held at Silverstone in 1948 — and that was before Formula One even began.

TIRED TYRES
Hamilton’s British GP tyre blowout blamed on Mercedes and not debris on track

LEW TURN
Hamilton hopes F1 drivers will be ‘more united’ in taking knee for BLM movement

TON OF TROUBLE
Watch from inside Hamilton’s Mercedes as tyre bursts in thrilling British GP

‘WE WILL INVESTIGATE’
Pirelli launch probe after Hamilton’s tyre exploded at Silverstone

LAP OF THE GODS
Hamilton says ‘heart nearly stopped’ as he wins British GP on THREE tyres

“In those days of course the engine was in front of the driver, the driver wasn’t wearing any safety clothing.
“They used to wear a skullcap and no crash helmet. The medical facilities were absolutely minimal, the cars were mobile deathtraps.
“They are infinitely more sophisticated now than they were, and it’s no less exciting from my point of view.”

Lewis Hamilton and Co given time to kneel at start of British GP after Hungarian GP farce.. but seven still refuse More