Lewis Hamilton ‘grumpy’ ahead of new F1 season after Mercedes contract saga

Martin Brundle has explained that Lewis Hamilton is in a “grumpy” mood ahead of the start of the new Formula One season.

This year’s campaign gets underway in Bahrain at the end of this month with Hamilton looking for a record-breaking eighth world championship.

Though it’s been a tough winter for Hamilton and Mercedes with driver and team spending weeks in negotiations over a new contract for the Brit.

They eventually agreed on a one-year extension despite multiple reports that Hamilton wanted a multi-year deal.

The 36-year-old appeared in a glum mood at the recent launch for this year’s Mercedes W12 car, and Brundle worked with Hamilton over the off-season.

"We did a couple of features with him that we will play out through the year on Sky F1," Brundle told Sky Sports.

"He was very generous but a bit grumpy actually, I thought generally. It’s interesting that his right-hand man, Marc Hynes, is no longer working with him.

"I sensed he possibly wasn’t super-happy with the way the negotiations have worked out at Mercedes."

Hamilton had previously explained his reasoning being agreeing to a one-year deal, believing it’s not necessary to plan for the future.

"Firstly, I'm kind of in a fortunate position where I've achieved most of the stuff I wanted to achieve up until this point, so there's no real need necessarily to plan too far ahead in the future," he said.

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    • "We're living through an unusual period of time in life and I just wanted one year.

    "Then we can talk about if we do more, and keep adding it [by] one if we have to.

    "The main priority in 2021.. in the past, it was about just winning the championship. Last year there was a lot of discussion about equality and inclusion, and I think there was a lot of talk…

    "This year, it's all about pushing for diversity and really making sure there's action taken. So that's kind of at the core of the drive for me.

    "But of course we exist to win, that's what all these guys and girls [at the factory] are working towards. And so that's my goal, to deliver that for them."

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