Wolff hopes Hamilton stays with Mercedes 'for many more years'

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has revealed that contract negotiations with Lewis Hamilton to extend his stay with Mercedes beyond the 2018 Formula One season are ongoing, and that he hopes the four-time world champion stays with the Silver Arrows 'for many more years'.

Hamilton recently won his fourth world championship which puts him level alongside Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost in the all-time champions list.

The Englishman currently has a contract until 2018 with Mercedes and recently spoke of his desire to not outstay his welcome in F1, insisting that it was his wish to eventually spend more time with his family and pursue other hobbies. For the moment, however, he is set to stay with the Silver Arrows and Wolff has claimed that talks are still going on.

“We are in negotiations about a new long-term contract and hopefully Lewis can stay with us for many more years,” Wolf told the BBC.

“This is the wish of all the parties. He wants to be with us and we would like to keep him obviously but at the same time I think he just needs to have the peace of mind that whatever he decides to do in the future he can do.

"At the moment he loves Formula One and doesn’t want to do anything else. All the rest is hobbies but maybe in two, three, four years that could change," he added.

It seems unlikely that Hamilton will not sign on the dotted line with Mercedes, as he confirmed this week that 2018 will not be his last year with Mercedes - even if the contract is not finalised as of yet.

“2018 is not the last year with Mercedes,” Hamilton told Che Tempo Che Fa.

“We are talking about the future, there will be a new contract, for sure.”