Lewis Hamilton could blow $175m Mercedes mega-deal

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has been warned by former teammate Jenson Button he risks blowing his Â£90million (NZ$175m) Mercedes mega-deal.

The comments come after the world champion has admitted his long-running contract talks have stalled due to disagreements around the finer details.

Last month Hamilton said negotiations were "99.6 per cent" completed but he now describes the acres of legal jargon as a "pain in the backside".

Having said for weeks that a deal was only days away, the 30-year-old has finally conceded it now won't get done before this weekend's third round here in China – and probably not the following race in Bahrain only seven days later.

And McLaren stalwart Button reckons Hamilton risks running into trouble as the already year-old talks grind on.

"It is a little tricky for a driver when a team are that competitive because he is obviously asking for something above what he was on before," said Button.

"And the team will say they don't need to pay him that because if he was not there, they could say the other guy in the team would win the races he won.

"So it is a tricky situation and not something you want to discuss during the season but he seems confident."

Hamilton, who has been handling talks personally since ditching XIX Management last season, finally admitted that far from just waiting on minor details from lawyers there is some distance to go yet.

"The negotiations are not all done," he confessed. "It's not just me, it's back and forth, back and forth. There are things that are done, there are things that are not done." TVNZ