Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton signed a contract with Mercedes after a long and arduous period of negotiations.
The two parties eventually reached consensus over a one-year deal and owing to the implications of the pandemic, Hamilton also agreed to take a pay cut.
It was only a month ahead of the start of the 2021 season that the British driver did commit his future at the team.
Although Hamilton was earning a handsome salary package of around £29m on his previous deal with Mercedes, he signed new terms that would see this annual figure drop to £21.7m for the current F1 season.
However, perhaps one of the reasons Hamilton was open to the idea was the fact that the deal also includes a lucrative bonus package which could see him earn a similar amount to last year.
Hamilton has won six of the last seven world championships, but this season could be one of the most challenging ones in his career.
The Stevenage-born driver is level on world titles with Michael Schumacher, which would make the task of winning one more championship a different experience in itself.
On top of that, Red Bull has shown tremendous pace throughout the pre-season testing in Bahrain and in the first race as well.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff recently said that he was hopeful Hamilton stayed at the team for many more season.
“I very much hope so; the journey that we have had together was very successful,” he said.
“He has been a Mercedes driver – a Mercedes kid since his go-karting years.
“He never raced a single weekend in Formula 1 without a Mercedes power unit, so it’s the logical continuation of the story.
“We don’t want to leave it until January to confirm the two drivers. Valtteri [Bottas] was pretty regular during the summer – this is when it should happen.
“Also, to give the driver peace of mind, or be able to concentrate on the job.
“And obviously for next year there’s lots of balls in the air and we will always try to do the best for the team long-term while also giving total loyalty to our current driver line-up.
“We are not doubting either Valtteri or Lewis but discussions obviously are going to happen – but not in January next year.”
Hamilton was full of enthusiasm after winning the opening race of the season against Max Verstappen.
“Wow. What a difficult race that was,” he said.
“Stopping early we knew would be difficult but we had to cover Max, they have had an amazing performance all weekend.
“Max was all over me at the end and I was just about able to hold him off. That was one of the hardest races I’ve had for a while.”
Do you think Hamilton will win his eighth world championship this season? Let us know in the comments below!