How major Lewis Hamilton announcement relieved Toto Wolff's stress, according to Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg feels that the announcement of Lewis Hamilton's extension with Mercedes was a major stress reliever for team boss Toto Wolff. The extension saga was going on for a while. Discussions were supposed to have begun last season, but with so many delays, question marks arose.

The biggest of them all was when Ferrari's name was thrown into the mix ,and speculation was rife that Lewis Hamitlon could make a move to the Italian team. In a similar vein, some of the comments from the Mercedes driver left everyone with doubts about his future. Amidst all that, while both Hamilton and Wolff announced that an extension was incoming, doubts persisted.

Talking about Hamilton's eventual extension, Rosberg said that Wolff must be relieved, telling Sky Sports:

“I think just stability, calmness because it always leads to uncertainty even in the leadership, ‘Ah Lewis has not signed yet’. It puts stress, stress because what if Lewis suddenly decides, ‘I actually prefer to go surfing at the beach’? That would be a big problem then."

He added:

“So it does put stress, especially probably on someone like Toto, even though he wouldn’t show it because he’s an incredible, incredibly good negotiator, and pretty cold, but inside it certainly put stress.”

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Toto Wolff reveals the reason behind Lewis Hamilton's contract delay

Toto Wolff revealed that the reason behind Lewis Hamilton's contract delay was because it was related to marketing.

Talking about Hamilton's contract and why there was a delay, Wolff reiterated that there was never a doubt between the two parties when it came to talking about what needed to be done.

The only reason there was a delay was something related to marketing (possibly involving the number of days of sponsor commitments etc.):

“Lewis and I were clear on the major terms in June, July. Things were just dribbling along. Bubbling along slowly. Then it was summer break, in the end, it was about marketing – not really the big relevant topics. That took a bit of time.”

Lewis Hamilton will be a Mercedes driver now till the end of the 2025 season. He will look to achieve the success the team enjoyed in the last decade as he looks to make them compete with Red Bull and Max Verstappen, starting with the Singapore GP this weekend.