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Hamilton will not get No. 1 status over Rosberg - Brawn

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton will be equals at Mercedes next year © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Ross Brawn
• |
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Nico Rosberg

• Teams:
• McLaren
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• Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton will race on equal terms with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes next year and did not ask for any preferential treatment during his contract negotiations, according to team principal Ross Brawn.

Hamilton and Mercedes announced the new deal last week with the British driver saying he is looking for a "fresh challenge" after five seasons racing for McLaren. The news broke after long-drawn-out contract negotiations, but Brawn said Hamilton had not asked for special treatment at any point.

"Lewis never asked for any priority at all, he just asked for equality," Brawn told Autosport. "He was pleasant in that he had no desires to have any special treatment or any unique facilities. Lewis just expects to have an equal opportunity in the team, as we would like to do as well.

"The conversation was relatively short in that area and I was impressed that he was positive enough to take that view and not attempt to protect some sort of position which would have been quite difficult for the team to accept. We never got into a discussion because Lewis didn't raise it. And if he had raised it, we probably wouldn't have wanted to do it."

Brawn added that he is confident Hamilton will be a good fit at Mercedes and the team will get the best out of him.

"I'm sure he's had a great deal of support at McLaren but you never know until you start working with anyone really," he said. "We have our views on how we should approach things and it seems to align with Lewis's views of how he'd like to approach things and I'm optimistic that it's going to be a strong team, not just with me but the rest of the company."

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