Formula One fans rejoice! Sir Lewis Hamilton has put pen to paper on a new two-year deal with Mercedes.Despite the seven-time World Champion signing a one-year deal earlier this year, this deal will mean he will be racing in 2022 and 2023.Hamilton has relished this season’s battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen although he is currently on the losing side, with Red Bull winning the last four races, including the Azerbaijan GP, where Sergio Perez (Red Bull) was able to pick up the pieces after Hamilton made a costly error on the race restart after Verstappen’s puncture.This week’s race, at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, is a must win for the Brit, as Verstappen has found his form with his three victories in four races, stretching his lead in the championship.

With rain forecast for the race, it will be the clash of titans as Hamilton has proven multiple times he is the wet weather master, but then again Verstappen is the fastest in those conditions but keeps making errors when he seems as though he is clear to win.

An example being the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix where Verstappen tried to overtake the Racing Point of Sergio Perez in a risky move but went wide and spun.

Verstappen vs Hamilton is the main story this year and, after Hamilton’s extension, for the next couple of years. It feels like a changing of the guard. By 2023, Hamilton will be 38, with Verstappen still only 23 despite being in Formula One since 2015.

This changing of the guard battle has happened before, most recently in 2006. Michael Schumacher was in his last year before his first retirement in the highly successful Ferrari team, battled season long with Fernando Alonso, who won the 2005 title with Renault (now Alpine).

Alonso was the young champion, with Schumacher one of the greatest of all time. Alonso came out on top then; will Verstappen do the same this year? Will youth prevail? Time will tell.