Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that just a few smaller details need to be sorted before Lewis Hamilton signs a new contract with the team, in what seems a pretty promising update from the Austrian team principal.

Hamilton's contract was the talk of the F1 paddock for much of last year as talks extended into 2021 and speculation naturally grew around that.

In the end, a new deal was signed but only for one year and it's clear that there's been a real preference from those involved this time around to get something sorted far quicker ahead of 2022's sweeping regulation changes.

Indeed, by the sounds of Wolff's update on the situation, things are progressing pretty well with him saying the biggest obstacles in the talks have already been dealt with, and it's now just a few finer points that need to be settled upon:

“We already have the biggest sticking points out of the way,” Wolff is quoted by TZ newspaper.

“Now we are only discussing the details but we will get rid of those too.”

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are right up against it at the moment in both the Drivers' and Constructors' championships with Red Bull and Max Verstappen taking the fight to them but they have the experience and talent to overcome such issues and that will be the plan in the coming races.