Duel with Russell 'pointless' for Hamilton: 'He hasn't forgotten that'

Lewis Hamilton is reported to be signing a contract with Mercedes soon, with a clause allowing him to decide who will be his teammate. Hamilton has been criticised for this, but some understand the choice.

Hamilton still does not have a new contract for 2021, and that of course causes a lot of rumours. There is now a rumour that Hamilton would like to sign a new contract, but that there is a clause in that contract that allows Hamilton to decide who his teammate will be. According to Christian Danner this is not unusual.

Clause for Hamilton

''I would not be surprised with such a clause, because that is not unusual for superstars. Michael Schumacher had something similar in his contract. He could determine what happened at Ferrari. An extraordinarily successful driver like Hamilton does not want to waste his energy on a pointless internal duel.

''That was logical for Schumacher and also for Hamilton,'' the journalist from German RTL told Sport1.de.

''A war with a teammate doesn't work well for the team. He wants to avoid a fight like in 2007 with Alonso. McLaren almost broke through this drama, because it was an absolute catastrophe. Hamilton, of course, has not forgotten that. It is logical that he wants to avoid such a scenario,'' concludes Danner.