Lewis Hamilton has signed a mammoth $127 million deal with Mercedes for another 2-year stay. If you know this, you might have also wondered what all the delay in signing the deal was about. Why did it take months of negotiations if this move was supposed to eventually go through? A former World Champion has revealed the shocking reason behind the hold-up.

If you guessed the reason to be anything other than money, there is still time to take a second guess. Or let it be. Because 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve has shined a light on the innermost part of the negotiations where the struggle between the 7x champ and Team Principal Toto Wolff was all about the millions of dollars that would exchange hands.

In his latest interview, Villeneuve said, “There are reasons you know, Lewis will try to get as much as he can, not only financially but in other areas. And Mercedes will try to do the opposite. So there’s a continuous little battle going on… that’s normal. That’s why you sign contracts. If it was simple, then it wouldn’t be needed.”

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F1 is the most expensive sport in the world. So, money naturally plays a great role in many kinds of negotiations and deals. Fortunately for the LH army, Hamilton made the deal work. But unfortunately for them, the current state of affairs in the Silver Arrows’ garage is still glum.

Mercedes Engineering Director paints a sorry picture for Lewis Hamilton at the Italian GP

All that the public might be talking about at the Italian GP might be Lewis Hamilton’s contract renewal. But this renewal is not a guarantee of improvement in on-track performance. After the 2 practice sessions on Friday at Monza, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin didn’t have anything good to say about their car performance.

“We’ve not got the car in a good place at the moment,” said Shovlin, after FP2. “That means we have a bit of work to do overnight to get the setup in the right place for the rest of the weekend. Single lap and long run both need work if we want to be competitive.”

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When the car condition is so dire, even the contract extension starts sounding more like a curse than a boon.