Over the past couple of months, Lewis Hamilton had been linked with a move away from current team Mercedes with speculation that a potential move to Ferrari was on the cards for the six-time champion.
However, those rumours have since moved on and the Brit looks near to signing a three-year contract with Mercedes worth £180 million.
Hamilton’s current contract will run out at the end of the 2020 season, and talks are now in place for a three-year extension, and if that extension does get signed, the Mercedes man could be set to take home some serious money.
For now, however, Hamilton’s main focus will be on securing a seventh world title to tie Michael Schumacher’s record.
Hamilton, though, did admit in December that he had been weighing up his options before turning 35.
He stated: "I love where I am so it is definitely not a quick decision to do something else, but it is only smart and wise for me to sit and think of what I want if it is the last stage of my career.”
Mercedes are desperate to keep their star driver, as there are few drivers that could replace the six- time champion. Both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen still have long-term contracts with their respective teams.
This situation helps Hamilton’s cause in negotiating his new contract due to Mercedes’ lack of options.
To put it into perspective just how crazy the reported figures for Hamilton’s new contract is, he could potentially earn £114-a-minute should he choose to stick with Mercedes. That also works out to £164,835-a-day, £1,153,846-a-week, £5,000,000-a-month and then £60,000,000-a-year.
Despite the huge rumoured fee, whilst speaking at pre-season testing, Hamilton insisted that he is in no rush to sit down and thrash out a deal with Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.
Hamilton said: "It is crazy because there is all this talk, but I have a certain approach in that I don't stress. I trust Toto and we have that trust between us.
"We have told each other what our goals are, what our aims are and our commitments, so I don't ever feel like there is necessarily any rush.
"But then sometimes Toto is like 'is everything OK?', so we keep the channel open and I am sure in the near future we will start to sit down."
With the season set to start next week, we can only sit and wait to see how Hamilton’s situation plays out.