Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has warned his rivals he had "unfinished business" after extending his contract at Mercedes.
Hamilton and teammate George Russell penned new deals through to the end of the 2025 season.
“You’re all stuck with me for a little longer,” Hamilton said with a smile on Thursday at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. "Honestly, I couldn’t be happier to be extending with this team."
"We’ve had such an incredible journey together. Mercedes have supported me since I was 13, such a long trip, and we still have unfinished business. We’re in this together, we've got a lot of work to do to get us back to the front but there’s no place I’d rather be."
The Silver Arrows confirmed that the pair would continue driving together in the next two seasons ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton will extend his F1 career beyond his 40th birthday with Mercedes, where he won six of his drivers' titles between 2014 and 2020.
The 38-year-old is reportedly set to earn around $63.4 million a season with Mercedes after renewing a contract that was set to expire at the end of the current campaign.
Speculations end
Mercedes' announcement brings to an end speculation over Hamilton's future as they struggle to compete with dominant Red Bull who have won every GP so far this season.
Hamilton relinquished his position as the number one driver in F1 in 2021 when he was controversially beaten to the drivers' title by Verstappen on the final day of the season.
Last season he failed to win or claim pole position at any GP for the first time in his career, while this year he is yet to add to his record 103 race victories.
July's pole in Budapest was his first in 33 GPs, and he finished the race in fourth after making a poor start in a race won by Verstappen.
Retirement looked increasingly likely to come at the end of the year, in particular, because Mercedes has struggled to adapt to changes to technical requirements that came into force at the start of the year.
Mercedes sit second in the constructors' championship standings but trail Red Bull by a whopping 285 points.
