Toto Wolff is confident that an agreement will be made with Lewis Hamilton on a new contract at Mercedes as early as this week. While Max Verstappen and Red Bull's dominance in 2023 has been the main story of the season so far, bubbling underneath the surface has been talk surrounding Hamilton's future.
With Mercedes once again failing to close up to Red Bull on the grid, questions were being raised on whether Hamilton would want to sign a new deal with the Silver Arrows or look for a new challenge. His current contract expires at the end of the year and reports emerged that Ferrari were going to test the waters on an audacious bid to take him away from Mercedes.
Both Wolff and Hamilton have both insisted that the plan has always been to get a new contract done and the Mercedes team prinicpal claimed last year that his main driver could even continue in F1 for another five years. The delay in negotiations has led to concerns that Hamilton would either walk away from the sport altogether or look to join a new team.
But Wolff now suggests there has been a breakthrough in talks with hope an agreement will be reached in the next few days.
"It is going to happen soon, and we are talking more days than weeks," Wolff told CNBC. "We are trying hard [to get it done before the Canadian Grand Prix].
"I will see him today and maybe we will talk about it. We have such a good relationship that we dread the moment that we need to talk about money."
Wolff also believes keeping Hamilton in F1 is important for the sport as a whole due to his high profile on and off the track.
"He's is the most important personality in the sport," Wolff added. "He is so multi-faceted, not only with the racing, but also off track and we need to keep him in the sport for as long as possible.
"From a team's perspective, Lewis and Mercedes have gone back a long time. He has never raced for any other brand than Mercedes. We both joined the team in 2013 together, and from a professional relationship, we now have a friendship. It has been a wonderful time."