F1 news review: Lewis Hamilton’s £70m deal

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In the F1 news this week speculation over the value of Lewis Hamilton’s new McLaren contract, while Ferrari suggest the Briton will struggle without traction control this year.

There’s also intrigue over the futures of two of the sport’s top team bosses – Jean Todt at Ferrari and Ron Dennis at McLaren.

Read on for more of this week’s news.

Honda to feature new livery in 2008 – Will Honda repeat their ‘Earth Car’ livery of 2007?

Management at Ferrari – Jean Todt’s role at Ferrari following the reshuffle of personnel is not clear.

Asmer to test for BMW again – The Estonian, Reigning British Formula Three champion, will try out for BMW again.

Lewis signs £70m McLaren contract – Opinions differ over how much Lewis Hamilton is worth to McLaren. British motoring weekly Autocar put it at £70m ($138m) over five years.

Alonso hints at get-out clause – Meanwhile Fernando Alonso suggests he can get out of his contract if Renault fail to achieve certain performance targets.

Not so cool with words – Another reviewer looks at the range of books on Lewis Hamilton and agrees with my conclusion that Mark Hughes’s “The Full Story” is the best of the bunch.

Ferrari F2008 technical analysis – A closer look at the Scuderia’s new 2008 F1 car.

Pondering the past, forecasting the future – your opinions revealed – The official F1 site rounds up the results of its various reader polls.

Dennis keeps a low profile at McLaren car launch – Martin Whitmarsh is increasingly emerging as Ron Dennis’s successor at McLaren following the embarrassment of the 2007 espionage controversy.

Stewart pays tribute to brother – Three times world champion Jackie Stewart talks about his brother Jimmy, who died this week.

Hamilton will be even better after going so close, says Hill – Damon Hill reckons Lewis Hamilton will be stronger in 2008.

Hamilton shrugs off taunts – While Hamilton ignores a suggestion from Ferrari that he might struggle now that traction control has been banned in F1.

Todt says new ECU benefits McLaren – Ferrari seem to feel not only will the traction control ban hurt Hamilton, but the single ECU will give McLaren an advantage.

Massa: we must be immediately fast and reliable – The Brazilian driver does not want a repeat of last year’s occasionally unreliable F2007.

Photos: Daimler | Ferrari S.p.A.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “F1 news review: Lewis Hamilton’s £70m deal”

  1. Why should Ferrari comment about how Lewis will feel without traction control. I would prefer they keep their mouth shut.

  2. Ferrari are trying to unsettle him and McLaren, which is also why Todt was making a fuss about the ECU. If Lewis is on £70m over 5 years then that’s only £14m, when Kimi is on £25m and Ralf was on £20m at Toyota.

  3. Sorry, I meant £14m per year.

  4. But Vertigo, those figures for Kimi and Ralf are in US dollars. Kimi is on $25m, Ralf was on $20m. This deal means Lewis is at $27.6m. (All figures per year)

  5. Journeyer-

    actually Vertigo is right,Kimi’s contract was $51 million annualy. ( U.S.)

  6. Weird comment that lewis won’t cope that good with traction control.
    Because i think it was clear (for years) he has superb car control,
    probably one of the best around!

    weird :)

  7. Lewis will cope without traction control as good as any of the young drivers who didnt have that option prior to joining F1 – the ones that will have possibly more problems are those that have been using traction control for more than a few years – that is where I will have put my foot in it – but smooth drivers should come too the fore – ie. – maybe a resurection in Button’s career as he does have reputation for smooth driving – but let’s see what develop’s!!

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